


Tony Stark And The Quest For The Orichalchum Sphinx

by antigrav_vector



Series: (R)BB fics - all pairings [22]
Category: Captain America (MCU), Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man Noir
Genre: Action, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mythical Creatures, Canon Typical Violence, Dogfights, M/M, Magic, POV Tony Stark, Smart Steve, Some angst, Some feels, Tony Stark is Indiana Jones, a few misunderstandings, lots of footnotes and worldbuilding, mythical creatures, pov fic, smart bucky, sphinx!Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 04:10:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18957598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antigrav_vector/pseuds/antigrav_vector
Summary: Tony can feel his health deteriorating despite all efforts to the contrary. The repulsor pump that’s been keeping him alive until now isn’t enough anymore, and he needs to find another solution or let himself fade away. Of course, his team doesn't want to let the latter come to pass, but Tony's not entirely sure he agrees with his steadfast trio of companions that that's what's best for all of them… well, not until he comes across a very surprising someone, on what he thinks will be his last adventure.





	Tony Stark And The Quest For The Orichalchum Sphinx

**Author's Note:**

  * For [feignedsobriquet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/feignedsobriquet/gifts).



> With thanks to my lovely beta reader, [dapperanachronism](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dapperanachronism) for her efforts, and my lovely artist [feignedsobriquet](https://feignedsobriquet.tumblr.com/) who drew absolutely stunning art that this fic is based on.
> 
> I hadn't actually intended to write anything for this bang, because RL has been well and truly hectic for the last several months, and I honestly wasn't sure I'd get it done in time... but your art just grabbed me and wouldn't let go, so here is the result. This is dedicated to you, @feignedsobriquet, because without that art and your enthusiasm (which kept me going), this bit of writing simply wouldn't exist.
> 
> As always when I have lots of footnotes, they're clickable and will take you back to the text afterward.
> 
> And one last note before we dive right in: though it's set in the same comics 'verse, and titled similarly, this fic is completely separate from the [Marvels: A Magazine Presents](https://archiveofourown.org/series/649643) series. Yes, I am still planning to write and post the last installment, no, I have exactly zero idea when that will happen. It might be in a couple of months, it might be in twelve.

Staring up at the well-hidden temple, lit by the orange light of late afternoon, with a sense of relief and triumph surging through him and mostly counteracting his fatigue and aches, Tony turned to his team to grin at them. "So, here we are. What do you think?"

There was a clearing just beyond the foot of the temple steps, with a small, cold stream running past it a few meters behind them. Rather than simply charge up the steps to go look around inside, Tony'd given in to his team's repeated requests for a break, and stopped to let them catch their breath and drink some of the water in their canteens. And the pause let him recover a little, himself, but he wasn't about to admit that, even under torture. 

Jarvis, who'd tagged along on the ground with them for a change -- ostensibly to stretch his legs with them for once but also with the unspoken goal of keeping a close eye on Tony's health -- raised an eyebrow at him. "It looks overgrown and abandoned," he commented. "Didn't you say this place was supposed to have some kind of caretaker?"

Pepper nodded, leaning against a nearby boulder and used her sleeve to wipe at the sweat beading on her brow. "Right. You said something about a Temple Guardian, didn't you?"

"I did," Tony acknowledged, "but the texts I've been working with are definitely several hundred years old. Depending on the accuracy of the dates inside and based on my own research, that estimate might actually stretch to a thousand years or more. So, the references to people keeping an eye on the temple are likely meaningless. I think we can assume they're all dead, and their descendants, too. Or, if they're still around, they've sought out greener pastures judging by the looks of this place."

Rhodey snorted and put his canteen back on his belt. "You can say that again. It's not exactly in good repair. That temple looks like it's about to collapse."

"And that's another thing. Don't let the appearance decisive you," Tony reminded him. "It might also just be illusion. Remember Fin Fang Foom?"

Jarvis nodded. "That was eerie. Everything was just that little bit off true. But if there are illusions involved, best we wait until morning to go in there. No need to risk our necks in the dark."

Impatient to see what awaited them, Tony wanted to protest the delay, but he knew his old friend was right about that much. "Alright, we'll make camp here, then," he conceded. "It's as well suited a spot as any we've seen nearby."

Pepper gave him a stern look. "We could all use the rest, in any case. It's been a tough trek to get out here."

The mostly hidden rebuke would've made him wince under other circumstances, but he truly did feel like his time was running short. Every morning, he felt the fatigue and pain caused by the repulsor pump more acutely, no matter how carefully Jarvis maintained it or how attentively he kept it charged. 

He needed to find a solution, and he needed to find it quickly, or his adventures were likely to come to an abrupt end. His team wasn't happy with the way he was pushing himself -- and them -- on this expedition, but they understood. All of them saw the writing on the wall, just as he did, and were justifiably worried.

Rhodey broke into his thoughts. "I'll say," he agreed. "Let's set up camp back by that stream we passed a few meters ago. It's not far."

"Tony can set some water boiling for later, while we set up camp," Jarvis agreed, volunteering him for cooking duty in the same breath. 

Tony made a face. "You sure you want to risk that, old bird? I may know what's edible around here but that doesn't mean I know how to cook it."

The others laughed at him, and they adjourned to get themselves settled for the night. It didn't take them long. All of them were old hands at camping in the Amazon, after the many expeditions they'd made in the region. Tony, as ordered, grabbed their cook pot and betook himself to the small stream so he could fill it with water to boil. It would go in their canteens once it had cooled and serve them well the next day, no doubt. Once the pot hung over the fire he'd laid and lit and carefully built up, he set about gathering the dried ingredients out of their packs, setting them out, ready to be used. The meal wouldn't be anything fancy, but stew was always filling. 

As the sun went down, they all took their places around the small cookfire and set to preparing their dinner. 

Once they'd eaten, they settled themselves in their small two-man tents and tried to get some sleep. Jarvis insisted on taking the first watch and Rhodey the second, leaving Tony scowling at them. Neither of them was dissuaded by any of his arguments, so after a couple of minutes Tony threw his hands up and left them to it.

As he stared up at the roof of his tent, meant more to keep the mosquitoes and rain off than anything else, he thought back over the research he'd done on this place. There hadn't been much to find, in his usual sources. A couple of off-hand references made in texts about other temples in the region, mainly. Those had gotten him curious, though, given the veiled allusions those references contained to magic artifacts, Temple Guardians, and trials meant to determine one's worthiness.

The exact location of this place had been even tougher to pin down. It had taken them a solid week to narrow it down to one particular tributary of the Amazon, and then another of talking to what'd felt like every last one of Tony's contacts in the country of Brazil, to get them passage to the point where the rivers met.

No one had been willing to bring them any closer, claiming that the Temple was cursed and killed people.

That had made Tony mighty curious, and hadn't dissuaded him a bit. Their boat captain, a skinny swarthy man in his late 50s, had shaken his head with a mournful expression and told him they would not return to Macapá in this lifetime. 

His team had exchanged worried looks, but Tony had cheerfully dragged them with him into the jungle. And now here they were. There was no sign of any kind of curse, but who knew. Magic could be very subtle when its wielder chose.

Tony stifled a yawn and tried to squirm into a more comfortable position on his bedroll. He was tired -- worn down, really, if he was honest -- but he doubted he'd sleep a wink.

He closed his eyes anyway, tired of staring up at the somewhat water stained tent canvas. He knew something like an hour had passed since they'd eaten and crawled into their tents, and he still felt restless enough to get up and pace in an attempt to make the morning come quicker. 

Letting out a long breath in what wasn't quite a sigh, he did his best to clear his mind.

* * *

Mounting the stairs in a bid to enter the temple, Tony found himself somehow endlessly climbing. It didn't seem to matter how much work he put in, he never seemed to make any progress toward the top.

Oddly, he was alone. None of the others was anywhere in sight, and their small campsite had vanished as though it had never been, and there were no sounds audible besides the quiet rustle of leaves, creak of tree limbs, and various bird calls.

The sun was nowhere to be seen, either, leaving the whole scene bathed in an eerie sort of half light.

And, Tony couldn't help but note as he kept climbing and feeling like Sisyphus -- doomed to forever push the same stone up the same hill but never reach the summit -- the foot of the steps beckoned to him invitingly. 

The scene as a whole gave him the strong feeling that he should turn back -- not out of any kind of fear, but rather because he somehow just _knew_ it would bring a far better ending to the tale of this expedition. 

Suddenly suspicious, Tony stopped and looked around him more carefully. 

The greenery around him was lush and the air heavy with humidity, as was the norm here in the Amazon, but there was an odd tension to the peace.

Tony couldn't put his finger on what it was, but there was something about it that loudly screamed 'trap' to his instincts, so he decided to discontinue his attempts to climb and instead planted his ass right where he was, seating himself on the steps and refusing to play this game any longer.

Whatever it was.

That state of affairs only lasted for a few moments before the feeling of tension spiked and he was tackled off the stairs from behind.

The impact sent him flying, a heavy weight against his back, and he landed hard in the dirt and moss at the base of the stairs. He didn't quite dare move at first, but he was uninjured. Albeit sprawled out on the ground with the wind knocked out of him and the heavy weight that had slammed into him still pressing him down. 

"Who art thou, trespasser?" An unfamiliar male voice with an underlying growl asked him as the weight lifted off him, its grammar archaic and formal. "What seekest thou here?"

Rolling himself onto his back, Tony got the shock of his life.

Looming over him was a figure that could only be a sphinx. Its face had that characteristically foreign look that all magical creatures seemed to have, its lower half was that of a lion, and the upper mostly human. From the waist up it looked like a man, save for some wicked looking claws on its hands. Its wings shone with the luminous silvery sheen characteristic of orichalcum. All in all, it looked a bit like the stylised Sphinx of Naxos come to life. [1] Or, more accurately, it would have, had it not had a man's head and torso rather than a woman's.

Tony eyed it warily. "And who might you be?"

The Sphinx' tail lashed, betraying its anger. "I am the Temple's Guardian," it said and Tony could hear the capitalisation. "Thou wilt answer for thy trespass."

Tony raised an eyebrow at it and started slowly getting to his feet with a wince. "I have not trespassed," he retorted, careful to keep his voice calm, even if the rest of him wasn't.

That got the tawny tail lashing harder and faster, and the Sphinx gave him a withering look. "Trespass need not be physical."

"Ridiculous," Tony told it. "I haven’t entered the Temple. How could I trespass mentally? That goes against the whole definition of the word. Trespass requires an action. A mere thought or an intention is not enough to constitute trespassing." [2]

The lashing tail subsided slowly. "Thou art not like the others," it said, sounding surprised, then repeated its initial question. "What seekest thou here?"

Tony hesitated, a spark of self awareness warning him to be careful. "Knowledge," he answered, after a second that seemed to stretch into infinity. "I have a grave injury I would heal, and seek the knowledge to do that."

"And thou thinkest to find the answer here?" It asked him, actually sounding curious now. "Thy injuries are indeed grave. How could the contents of the Temple help?"

"How could I possibly answer that without knowing what is inside and what it does?" Tony shot back, finally feeling like he had solid conversational ground under his feet. 

"Very well," the Sphinx replied. "I shall grant thee entry. May thou find what thou seekest."

Tony woke with a start, his eyes flying open as he sat bolt upright in his bedroll. It was shortly after midnight, but there was no way he would be able to sleep after that.

Stretching with a quiet groan and dressing, Tony gathered his wits as best he could and ducked out of the tent to join whoever was on watch. 

Rhodey raised an eyebrow at Tony when he dropped down on the log beside him. "You're supposed to be sleeping, Boss," he said wryly. 

"I know," Tony replied with a shrug. "Strange dreams."

That got Rhodey's attention immediately. "What do you mean?"

"I have no idea what it means, myself," Tony said. "But I dreamt that I was trying to climb the temple steps and getting nowhere. That going back down would end better. Or at least with less pain. And then I got knocked backwards off the stairs and onto the ground."

"Huh," Rhodey considered that. "And then what? I assume there's more."

"That's the really weird part. The thing that knocked me down turned out to be a sphinx and it claimed to be the Temple Guardian. We argued for a minute or two and then it said it would allow me into the temple."

"What about the rest of us?" Rhodey asked him after a silent moment.

Tony shrugged. "No idea. I'm not sure if it means anything at all, or was just my worries manifesting as a dream."

"Let's hope it's the latter," Rhodey said on a sigh. "I don't much like the idea of you going in there on your own."

"Well, if it truly was nothing but a dream, I won't be," Tony pointed out.

Rhodey gave him a sardonic look, but said nothing. They fell silent for a while, and then Tony stretched with a groan before relaxing back into a slouch where he sat.

"Go back to bed, Boss," Rhodey suggested. "You'll need the rest for your explorations tomorrow."

"Fine, fine," Tony muttered. "I don't think that'll get me far, but I guess it'd be more comfortable than this log."

Somehow, after he'd settled himself back in his tent, his eyes fell shut, seemingly weighted down, and next thing he knew Jarvis was waking him for breakfast. 

Rhodey, unsurprisingly, had hinted that they'd talked about strange happenings during his watch, so Pepper and Jarvis waited until all of them had eaten their full, then started doing their best to pry answers out of him. 

Pepper made excited noises when he told the story a second time, making him stop talking long enough for her to get her journal out and then taking a copious amount of notes as he talked. 

Jarvis gave him sidelong looks and started asking pointed questions. "What the hell is a sphinx doing here rather than in Greece or Egypt where it nominally belongs? And if it was a sphinx, why didn't it ask you any riddles? That's what they're known for."

"Hell if I know," Tony answered. "But I know what I dreamt. It's possible that there was something or someone else involved that wanted to disguise their presence somehow."

Jarvis huffed at him. "All the more reason to be cautious, then. Why didn't it appear to all of us, then, if it was trying to warn you away?"

Pepper chuckled. "Maybe a miscalculation," she suggested. "Perhaps whoever it was thought we'd follow Mr. Stark without questioning this. What puzzles me is, why did it appear as a male sphinx? Aren't those supposed to be very rare?"

"They are," Tony confirmed. "At least in known Greek and Egyptian mythology. I wouldn't be surprised if those tales exaggerated their rarity. It's not like the ancients were particularly well known for their accuracy of description."

Rhodey picked that moment to jump in. "So were more or less agreed that it was likely connected to the temple, sure, but what I want to know is: does this actually mean we can all go inside or only the Boss?"

"I have no idea," Tony repeated what he'd told his pilot last night. "We'll have to give it a try and see what happens."

After breakfast, they cautiously climbed the stairs, and to Tony's relief the feeling of climbing but getting nowhere was entirely absent. In fact, he had no problem at all and felt a nothing more ominous than a sense of curiosity. That was in stark contrast to the feeling of menace warning them away from entering the space that the others all described.

It didn't take them long to concede that Tony would go in on his lonesome after all, despite their initial reluctance to allow that, though they did insist that he check in with them after an hour or they would assume he'd gotten injured or worse. That was fairly standard procedure for his expeditions, so Tony didn't put up a fight over it. 

Tony ventured into the dark space alone, a lit torch in his hand, and started looking around. The walls, as was the norm for this region of the world, were made from massive stone blocks. Those around the entrance of the temple were plain, unornamented. A few steps further inside, he found an archway covered in carvings. They reminded him of those he'd seen before in Aztec and Incan ruins, but it was clear that whoever had built this place had not belonged to either ethnic or linguistic group. More interestingly still, the images did seem to tell a story, but it wasn't one he knew how to decipher on the spot.

Touching the uncarved stone blocks of the archway and wishing he dared take the time to sketch it all out right there and then for later reference, he took a deep breath and continued. He could come back to do those sketches after he'd scouted out the rest of the interior.

The rest of the temple was comprised of a largish empty space with a pair of smaller Sphinx statues at its entryway and a third one a little larger than a man placed opposite him near the back wall. None of them appeared to be anything other than simple stone, but Tony knew better than to judge based on appearances. 

Then the voice of the Sphinx from his dream seemed to whisper in his ear. "Thou seest, now. There is naught for thee here, Seeker of Knowledge."

Tony stopped moving and shook his head in an attempt to clear it. He didn't think he was imagining things, but even so...

"Nothing but a few statues, one of which is supposed to be magical," he answered quietly. "Is it truly?"

Tony thought he saw a hint of movement near the back of the temple but didn't react other than to glance over at it long enough to satisfy himself that there was no one lurking in the shadows to attempt to kill him. 

A sound that resembled a chuckle answered him. "Yes and no," the voice whispered, and that time Tony did see it as the largest statue moved. 

A bit unnerved, he froze. "What does that mean?"

Another chuckle that reminded him of wind whispering over sand sounded as the statue stood and stretched. "It has been many years since anyone has been granted entry," it said instead, approaching him with the sinuous movements of a tiger. "Most who find this place leave with no memory of their time here. Those with evil intentions do not leave at all."

Only when it stood fully in the light that filtered on through the door could Tony see that its wings were not in fact stone, but rather the orichalcum he'd thought he'd only dreamt up. 

"So you are magical enough to move and speak," Tony deduced, getting an enigmatic smile from the Sphinx, "but can't grant wishes or anything like that."

"Hmmmm, very good," the Sphinx purred, sitting back on its haunches and leaving it face to face with Tony. "Perhaps humanity is not as hopelessly ignorant as I had begun to think it was."

"The majority of us are," Tony told it with a shrug. "But I have seen far too many otherwise inexplicable things on my travels."

"Of course you have, Seeker of Knowledge," the Sphinx told him with something of a smug air. "Those who seek in the correct places, often also find what they seek."

Unsure what to think of that title, Tony filed it away and tried to redirect the conversation again, though he didn't doubt that the Sphinx would do as it damned well pleased. "Is there anything here that could lead me to my goal, then?"

"That is a difficult question to answer," the Sphinx said.

"Because you can't or because you don't want to?" Tony followed up, giving it an expressively sardonic look.

"Yes," it said simply. 

Tony rolled his eyes. "Fine. Will you tell me what you think should be my next step?"

That got him a truly shocked look in return. "In all my years as Guardian," it said slowly, "never once have I been asked that question. Very well, Seeker of Knowledge, I will assist thee in thy quest for healing." The Sphinx stood and leapt back up onto its pedestal. "Return thou to thy friends and campsite, and wait thou there until sundown. I shall rejoin thee presently. Arrangements must be made for the protection of the Temple in my absence."

Somewhat mystified, Tony nodded slowly. "Alright. Until sundown."

Without another word the Sphinx nodded and closed its eyes, seeming to fall asleep between one moment and the next.

Tony watched it contemplatively for a few seconds, then shook his head and followed his marching orders, though he did stop to make his sketches on his way back out of the temple. No doubt the Sphinx was right and his team was worrying about him. 

When he re-emerged into the bright equatorial sunlight, the others were impatiently waiting for him at the foot of the stairs. 

"Well?" Pepper demanded as he approached conversational ranges.

"I'll tell you about it as we walk," Tony replied, noting the time in surprise. "We'll spend the night at our campsite as planned, and decide on our course of action in the morning. And don't get excited if someone shows up to join us around sundown. We've potentially got a guest incoming."

Somehow it was already late afternoon. He'd entered the temple shortly after breakfast, it could have been mid morning at the latest. That meant he'd been inside for six hours, at a guess. It sure hadn't felt that long, and it was kind of astounding that his team hadn't tried to storm the temple to get him out of there.

"Lead the way, then," Rhodey suggested. "It's high time we ate something, anyhow."

"Sure is," Tony agreed. "Come on, gang."

He filled them in on the broad outlines of what had happened as they walked, secure in the knowledge that Pepper would insist he go over it once more, in as much detail as she could pry out of him, when they reached their campsite. 

They got back to find everything as they'd left it, with about two hours left until sundown. It didn't take them long to build their fire again and the next hour and a half or so was spent preparing ingredients and cooking another stew with the supplies they'd brought along and foraged.

Tony carefully made sure there would be one spare portion for their mysterious guest whenever they arrived. 

As though the thought had summoned them, a figure appeared out of the darkening jungle. Tony eyed the newcomer. "Are you the guest the Temple Guardian said would come meet us?"

The question got him a hint of a smirk. "I am."

Tony took the guy in, letting himself stare for just a moment. He wasn't overly tall, but he was built like a brick house. He wasn't ridiculously muscled, but gave off an air of being rooted firmly to the ground somehow. Tony's eyes lingered briefly on long legs and broad shoulders and trim waist before he tore them away to meet the guy's eyes again. Those eyes. That face. If this wasn't the sphinx he'd spoken to twice now, this was someone who looked just like it. 

"So who are you?" Jarvis asked, plating up the last serving of stew and stepping over to offer it.

"Call me Bucky," he offered. "My full name must remain secret."

Jarvis offered the stew a second time. "This is meant for you," he said with a slightly stern cast to his features.

Bucky took the bowl that time. "My thanks," he said quietly. "You are generous to make the offer."

Pepper jumped in. "If you travel with us, you're one of us, until such time as you leave us again," she said and Rhodey nodded, backing her up.

Bucky caught and held their eyes in turn, before he nodded, looking oddly touched. "Very well, I accept."

Tony saw Pepper's eyes narrow thoughtfully, but she said nothing. "Will you tell us about yourself?" He asked, wanting to know more about their new traveling companion. 

Bucky shrugged. "There is not much to tell. I am the Temple Guardian. I was trained for it from birth and will likely remain such until I die."

Rhodey gave him a disbelieving look. "You can't be a day over twenty-five," he declared flatly, "and the Boss said the Temple Guardian was a sphinx."

Bucky's expression went a bit mischievous, and then it seemed like he blurred. As though he was standing in a column of rising air that wavered as you looked at it. When it cleared, the sphinx was standing in Bucky's place, his eyes seeming to flash gold in the fading evening light and clothing nowhere to be seen.

Rhodey cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well now, that's not something you see every day."

Bucky grinned at his discomfort. "I'm sure."

"How on earth did you end up here?" Pepper asked, eyes lighting up in curiosity. "I thought sphinxes were native to Egypt and Greece."

Bucky eyed her a little warily. "That is a long story, and not one I am at liberty to tell."

Making a disappointed moue, Pepper accepted that. "But the rest of your history isn't under the same interdict, surely."

"It is not," Bucky conceded, "but I do not wish to talk about it. It is not a happy tale."

That stopped her interrogation cold. "I see."

Pepper was many things, chief among which were curious and persistent and courageous, but cruel she was not.

Jarvis butted in, breaking the tension with his pragmatism. "We should bed down for the night and get moving at daybreak," he said gruffly. "Stark, you've got space for one more in your tent. You'll have to deal with our guest."

That was Jarvis' way of telling him to keep an eye on Bucky. It was unnecessary, and Tony knew it. He couldn't say how or why he knew it, but he did. Bucky wouldn't harm them. If anything, the opposite was more likely true.

It was a bit surprising that none of the team had protested Bucky's presence, given how protective they had been of him recently, that they hadn't insisted on shuffling Rhodey in with him and bedding Bucky down with Jarvis. Tony wasn't about to object, though. Bucky was attractive as hell, with those lips that promised deep plush kisses and the very obvious strength in his arms and torso. And that said nothing about the lean muscles of his legs, which Tony would have happily run his hands over for as long as Bucky would let him.

No, down boy. This was neither the right time -- nor the right person -- for him to allow his appetites free rein, and nevermind that the Greeks had basically been all in favor of same sex relationships. Stamping down the attraction simmering in his hindbrain, Tony refocused his attention on the discussion. 

Rhodey chuckled. "Fine with me. At least if he snores like you, Jarvis, I won't have to be the one to deal with it."

"I'm afraid we don't have a spare bedroll to offer," Tony said, turning back to the sphinx and offering an apologetic shrug.

"I will not need one, but I thank you for the consideration," Bucky replied, and surveyed their campsite. "Which is your tent, Seeker of Knowledge?"

The title got Tony odd looks from his team, but no one commented.

"The one on the left, here," Tony pointed it out. "Are you still hungry? There's a little more stew left, if you want a second helping before we hit the sack."

"Thank you, no," Bucky turned that offer down politely. "Whoever stands watch should have it."

Rhodey and Jarvis nodded, and Tony could tell the consideration had won Bucky several points with both of them. 

Turning to duck into his tent and move his things out of the way, Tony tuned out the last few sentences the others spoke. It didn't take him long, thankfully, but he was still unprepared for the sight of the sphinx holding the tent flap out of the way and watching him curiously.

Clearing his throat awkwardly, he shifted to sit on his bedroll and started working his boots off. Not meeting Bucky's eyes, he offered, "Come in and make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you," Bucky accepted, seeming to slink into place. "Your kindness does you credit."

Tony gave him a somewhat sardonic smile. "You've offered to help me," he returned. "What kind of ungrateful asshole do you take me for?"

"Not you," Bucky disagreed, "but many others have taken offered assistance as invitation to demand more or mistreat the source."

Forced to concede the point, Tony sighed. "The human race isn't known for its diplomacy."

He didn't get a verbal answer but Bucky chuckled and the air around him shimmered again, leaving a massive African lion in his place, settling in to sleep beside him, and Bucky's voice whispered to him from everywhere and nowhere, as it had in his dream. "Rest, Seeker of Knowledge, that you may be fit to travel in the morning."

"My name's Tony," he muttered back. "And I know you know that."

The impression of amused laughter followed him down into deep dreamless sleep like he hadn't enjoyed in weeks.

* * *

They set out early the next morning, accompanied by Bucky, once more on two feet rather than four.

Tony was privately half convinced he'd dreamt about Bucky's transformation to a lion, but he didn't dare write it off entirely. He had plenty of experience with magic and magical creatures, and knew better than to simply assume he'd imagined something like that.

Their hike back to the river and their boat, bought and paid for, used, was uneventful. The rainforest around them was tranquil, and they encountered no big obstacles.

Interestingly, over the course of the hours it took them to get back to their boat, Bucky's speech patterns had gradually shifted away from the very formal language he'd started out using, until it started taking on a thoroughly modern New York accent. 

Rhodey was the one to call him out on it. "So, Bucky," he asked with a speculative look, "how come you were talking like Shakespeare last night and using what sounds like Brooklynese now?"

The question got him a fluid shrug. "The last person I talked to used that kinda grammar. Language has changed a lot since then."

Pepper looked a bit conflicted. "Just how long have you been Temple Guardian, anyway?"

"Too long, I think," Bucky answered, looking off into the distance with a melancholy expression.

Jarvis cleared his throat. "None of that matters, you know," he said, directing the words at both of them. "What we should be discussing is our next step. After all, Mr. Stark hasn't found what he was searching for yet."

"You got a map?" Bucky asked him.

"A small one," Tony replied, and dug in his pack for it, glad he'd stashed it in one of the outer pockets. "Here. The bigger one is aboard the airship."

"... airship?" Bucky gave him a sidelong look as he accepted the map and unfolded it.

"I'll tell you about it once we're under way," Tony told him. "You'll see when we get back to Macapá. For now, let's plan."

Turning his attention back to the map and very obviously fighting his curiosity, Bucky peered at it for a moment, holding it upside down. "You're sure this is a map?"

Tony bit down on his amusement. "Yeah. It's meant to be held this way around," he said and gently pulled it out of Bucky's hands, righted it, and offered it back to him.

"Ah. Right." Pretending that had never happened, Bucky stared at it for a few seconds, then pointed out a location in the Argentine mountains. "I can offer you a chance," he said, "nothing more. The rest is up to you."

Tony nodded. "I expected something of that sort."

"So where are we going?" Jarvis asked impatiently.

"Argentina, near the border with Chile," Tony answered. "We'll need the map aboard the airship if you want me or Bucky to be more precise about our next destination."

Rhodey sighed and shook his head but accepted that without argument. Jarvis grumbled a few curses under his breath but didn't push things any further.

Pepper, who'd leaned over as Bucky pointed at the map, looked thoughtful. "Isn't that one of the regions you've been to before?" She asked Tony.

"It's been at least a decade, but yes," Tony told her. "That was one of the expeditions that failed."

"Failed?" Bucky looked intrigued. "What happened?"

"I got to the tomb, though it had been described by my sources as a shrine of some sort, but by the time I got there it was picked clean of everything but the bare rock it had been built on. Even the stone walls had been torn down to be reused, so there was nothing there. Whoever got there before I did -- scavengers of some stripe probably -- cleaned the place out of everything remotely valuable or useful," Tony explained. "It was a shame, really. The few traces that still lingered suggested that the shrine must have been beautiful."

After a short moment of silence, Jarvis got them moving again -- Tony had barely noticed that they'd stopped walking -- and some ten minutes or so later they finally reached the river. 

Bucky eyed their little boat, just big enough for them and their packs, and grimaced, but stepped aboard with a shudder. "You could have warned me," he muttered to Tony, looking rather sullen.

"I didn't want to jump to conclusions?" Tony offered half in apology. "Not all cats hate water, and you're not even truly a cat."

Somewhat mollified, Bucky accepted that. "Fine. This trip better not take a week, though."

Jarvis made an amused sound. "Shouldn't be more than about two days," he said, "assuming we travel until we can't anymore. If we take it a little easier, three."

Settling himself smack in the center of the boat, where any motion he felt would be kept to a minimum, Bucky grumbled something Tony recognized as very impolite under his breath in Greek that sounded like it came straight out of Homer.

The rest of them settled themselves around Bucky and made sure their packs weren't going to leave the little craft off balance, and then they were off. Bucky startled when Jarvis started up the engine, then relaxed again muttering about more surprises.

Tony, who hadn't thought to tell him about that, found himself reassessing their traveling companion. If he was going to be set on edge by every technological advancement unfamiliar to him, that might cause some trouble.

There was no telling what that included, either. Everything, probably. Judging by the mode of speech he'd had initially, the last time he'd been aware of the outside world might well have been in the Middle Ages or shortly thereafter. The thees and thous were pretty characteristic of that age. Hell, the last people he'd dealt with might well have been the Spanish and Portuguese explorers of the Americas. There had long been rumours floating around that the historical accounts of Pizarro's death [3] had been fabricated to keep the rest of his crew in line long enough for his successor to take the reins. And Bucky had said he'd had no compunctions about making sure people he deemed 'evil' didn't leave the temple he guarded. A temple that said explorers might well have stumbled across in their mad scramble for land and gold. None of which explained why Bucky spoke English and not Spanish or Portuguese.

But all of that was pure speculation on Tony's part, and not overly productive.

It was increasingly obvious that Bucky would be stepping into a wholly unfamiliar world in making the decision to help Tony. Hell, he already had, really, judging by his reaction to the boat's motor. An object so commonplace to Tony that he hadn't given it a second thought. 

Adding Bucky to their company might be trickier to navigate than it had first appeared to be. 

The rest of their trip downriver was, thankfully, uneventful until they got to Macapá[4] and its bustle. They unloaded their packs, sold the boat back to the man they'd bought it from, as per their agreement, and left him a tip into the bargain. Then they made their way around the outside of the city to the airfield. 

Bucky spent the trip staring wide-eyed around himself and asking questions about most of it. To his team's amusement, Tony indulged every moment of it, answering and explaining anything he could and enjoying Bucky's fascination with it all.

The airfield, when they arrived, almost made Bucky balk. "What is this place?" He demanded, with a hiss of displeasure. 

"A storage and maintenance area for our flying machines," Tony said with a shrug. "It's like a port for ships that sail through the air rather than on the water."

That analogy got Bucky to relax a little. "It's loud," he grumbled.

"It is," Rhodey agreed with a grin. "But it's worth it for the amount of time it saves us when we travel around the world."

"If you say so," Bucky replied, sounding rather dubious.

He kept his silence after that until they were aboard the airship, seeming to uncurl when most of the ambient noise abated. "This is your airship, then," he said, glancing around.

Tony was fairly sure he was almost itching to go start opening doors and peering into corners. "It is. Go ahead and explore, if you want, otherwise one of us can give you the nickel tour."

Bucky didn't reply, simply taking off and starting to poke through the rooms on the lower floor of the airship.

Rhodey made an amused noise that bordered on a chuckle. "The workshop's locked, right?"

"Should be," Jarvis replied. "Best I go check, though. We don't want our guest injuring himself."

Pepper looped an arm through Tony's. "While they deal with that, you and I are going to have a sit down in the galley and go over my notes," she declared.

"Fine, fine," Tony gave in. "But I don't think we'll find many errors."

* * *

They were left in peace to go over their notes for about fifteen minutes, and then Bucky and Rhodey came strolling into the galley to join them.

"Come on, Boss," Rhodey said, his tone mostly cheerful, "you and Bucky here need to tell us where we're going so we can file ourselves a flight plan and get going. The mooring fees here aren't terrible but they are starting to add up."

Never let it be said that Tony didn't know how to recognize a hint. He might ignore most of them afterwards, but he knew one when he heard it. This time, he gave Rhodey a half-smile and stood. "You've got a point, Jim. Come on, let's go up to the helm and take advantage of the more detailed maps up there."

Bucky looked around appropriately curiously when they got up to the bridge, prowling through the relatively spacious area and looking at everything in it to the tolerant amusement of the whole team, before he joined them to plan. They'd stood in a semicircle around the frames map hung on the wall beside the helm and Jarvis had eyed the various possible locations speculatively.

When Bucky rejoined them, Jarvis have him a significant look. "So where's our destination, then?" He asked, his tone brusque as usual.

Bucky took it in stride, used to the veteran's manner, meantime, and pointed to a remote area southeast of Chile's capital city of Santiago. "Near here," [5] he said, sounding almost thoughtful. "It’s inaccessible without being on foot."

Rhodey considered that. "How close can we get? Will it take more than a few hours? We could refuel in Santiago and then keep the airship nearby on patrol for up to a day, if that's feasible."

Bucky shook his head. "Time means nothing once someone is inside," he replied cryptically. "The Seeker of Knowledge might need minutes or weeks, even years, and we will not know until he re-emerges."

That had the ring of personal experience. Tony eyed him, then turned to Jarvis. "In that case, we'd better stash a radio and some batteries somewhere nearby. If it takes weeks, you'll have to head back to New York to keep an eye on my affairs there. Maybe let Fury know. If it does take years, we may need his help to keep my assets from getting frozen."

Pepper snorted. "Naming one of us your heir might be the most expedient option."

Jarvis nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe something like having the group of us hold his estate in trust for ten years before his will takes effect."

"I suppose I can live with that," Tony agreed. "We'll find a notary or some other suitable official to do it once we get in to Santiago. There's an embassy there, if memory serves."

If this expedition was unsuccessful, he didn't expect he'd live ten years anyway.

Bucky's eyes caught his, then, and a shiver went down Tony's spine at the strange sense of weight there. It felt like Bucky could see right through him to read his resignation like a book. And didn't like what he saw for some reason Tony couldn't name. 

Shaking the feeling off, he turned to Rhodey and Jarvis. "What do we need to do before we leave? Besides refuel the airship."

Jarvis shrugged. "Not much. We need to make sure everything is stowed and secured, and that's about it. Maybe replenish our camping supplies, if there are any to be had that aren't going to make us think we're eating dog food."

Pepper nodded. "So we'll leave first thing in the morning, I assume," she said. "That'll leave us enough time to deal with our errands and maybe do some laundry."

Tony nodded. "A shower or a bath and a clean set of clothes sounds like a slice of heaven right about now."

Rhodey groaned. "No kiddin'," he agreed.

"Well, let's get to it, then. And if he wants to pull his weight, Mr. Stark should get some more details about our destination out of Bucky while we deal with the chores."

Bucky looked amused, but nodded.

After that, it didn't take long for his team to leap into action. Rhodey left the airship for solid ground, and went off to negotiate for some fuel with a sizable portion of their remaining travel funds. Pepper and Jarvis settled in to deal with their chores. Pepper picked up the task of inventorying their supplies and creating a shopping list. Jarvis bullied Tony into the onboard shower so that he could take the dirty clothes Tony was in and add them to their pile of laundry that needed to get done. His own clothes, then Pepper's and Rhodey's, would soon follow, Tony knew. 

Once he was clean, he truly did feel like a new man, or nearly so. Tony dried himself off and sauntered out into his quarters, secure in the knowledge that they'd be empty, and just about leapt out of his skin. Bucky had done his thing and was half cat again, and had decided to lay claim to Tony's bed.

Bucky's eyes were slitted mostly shut and he was happily kneading a pillow Tony knew would never be the same again after having met those clawed hands.

Ice blue eyes met his, and Bucky smirked at him. "Ain't'ya gonna get dressed?" He asked with a smile that implied butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.

Tony knew better than to believe the pretense of innocence.

"Sure I am," he replied keeping his voice as even as he could, and turned to rummage in his chest of drawers for something he wouldn't mind potentially adding to his set of 'work clothes'.

Most of his things were hard wearing, it was true, but some were specifically chosen for the workshop, some for the jungle, and some for his infrequent stays in larger cities, where his name was better known and he needed to look like Tony Stark. 

He pulled out a pair of slightly finer slacks than he'd worn for the trip out to the Temple and a button down out of similar weight fabric, and pulled both on before he turned his attention back to the sphinx on his bed. "So tell me more about this place you're taking us, then," he invited and settled himself at his desk to take notes. 

Bucky watched him, a gleam in his eyes that suggested something covetous, then started talking. "I told ya it's remote and not easily accessible except on foot. The area we're lookin' for is near the base of a volcano."

"An active one?" Tony wasn't sure he like the idea, even if the volcano was dormant. They had a tendency to be unpredictable and cause havoc on the local geological stability.

"By your definition or mine?" Bucky asked him with a smirk. "It hasn't erupted in a coupla thousand years, so it's about due, probably, but as long as no one disturbs it, it won't pop."

Tony groaned. "Right. An active volcano, then."

Bucky's smirk broadened into a grin, but he went on. "Once we reach the foot of the volcano, we'll haveta be prepared to make a hike. It takes between eight and ten hours depending on the route we can take and how fit everyone is."

At those altitudes, and with the limitations imposed by his repulsor pump... Tony might have trouble with a hike that difficult. He nodded and summarized what Bucky had told him so far in his journal.

Once he was through, Bucky caught his attention again. "You gonna be okay for a day long march?"

"Depends on how strenuous it is," Tony said on a sigh. "My injury makes being that high up difficult. A tough hike on top of that? We'll see. But it might take us two days rather than one."

That got him a nod and a thoughtful expression. "Alright. Two shorter days is manageable."

That sounded suspiciously like Bucky had some kind of timetable to meet. "We on a time limit?"

"Yes and no," came the predictably cryptic answer. "There are better days and worse ones."

Giving that line of questioning up for a bad job, Tony shook his head and added a few sentences to his notes. "And what are we looking for?"

"I'll tell you more about it once we're on the ground," Bucky decided, his voice firm and brooking no argument. "First we've gotta get there and you've gotta make your arrangements. One step at a time."

"Just so long as you don't pull the same trick when we do land and try to string me along, I'll accept that," Tony grumbled at him, not entirely happy with that plan, but he knew better than to argue.

So long as he was dependent on Bucky's goodwill for the chance to achieve his goal, he needed to keep from pissing him off. That also meant keeping his attraction to the sphinx on a very short leash, which might be even more difficult to do.

Bucky gave him another measuring look, and smirked at him. "There you go again, proving that you're far more perceptive than most of your kind," he answered. "I wasn't goin' to try anythin' like that."

Tony debated offering a apology, then decided against it. Better not to make a big deal out of this. "Alright. Let's get you settled in one of our guest rooms, then," he offered instead.

That got him an amused chuckle, but Bucky nodded. "And then you can return the favor," he added.

"Favor?" What did that mean exactly?

"I told you about your destination. You're going to tell me about this... airship of yours. What it is, how it works."

Laughing outright, Tony agreed. "Square deal. Come on."

He ended up spending the next several hours answering a seemingly endless series of questions. How did the airship float? What the hell was hydrogen? And helium for that matter? How did the lamps work without oil? What was electricity? And electrons? Did they have to use wires made of metal? How could anyone possibly cook while high up in the sky?

It just went on and on. Every question he answered seemed to spawn five more, sometimes probing the very limits of what he knew and could explain.

But Bucky's eyes were glowing under the force of his curiosity and enthusiasm, and Tony couldn't have resisted that sight if he'd tried. 

Eventually, though, Jarvis interrupted the discussion to announce dinner, and Tony suddenly realized just how hungry he was. To Tony's vast amusement, Bucky wasn't at all deterred by the interruption, and simply started questioning the rest of the team as they ate.

They had to put their respective feet down pretty firmly when it came time for them to sack out, or Bucky'd have simply kept them there all night wanting to know about this thing or the other, ranging from the gas camping stove installed in their kitchen, to tinned food, to the gasoline tanks for the motors powering the airship.

* * *

Bright and early the following morning, they got underway. It would not be a short trip, by any means. The airship could easily sustain speeds of 100 kilometers per hour for long periods of time[6], but they would have to cover about 4200 klicks. Even if they flew straight through, without stopping, in a straight line, they would need at least 42 hours to reach their destination. They wouldn't be flying a perfectly straight line, either. Their American passports worked against them in several South American states, and they currently weren't welcome in Paraguay. So to keep the tension to a minimum, they'd be making a short detour to avoid making that particular border crossing. Bolivia wasn't that much happier with the US, at present, but the airfield personnel hadn't put up a fuss about that when Jarvis and Rhodey had gone to discuss the flight plan with them, whereas they'd been carefully warned against crossing Paraguay.

Luckily, that wouldn't be a problem until about 24 hours from their departure, which would be taking place shortly.

Tony staked out a spot on the small open platform on the lower floor, as he always did for takeoff and landing. He enjoyed the feeling of wind and sun on his face, and watching as the ground fell away beneath his feet. It was even nice in light snow or rain, though weather conditions any worse than a drizzle or snow flurry ruled out making a takeoff or landing except in cases of dire need, due to the dangers involved.

As the sun crested the trees around the airfield, Bucky appeared at his side, radiating what Tony interpreted as nerves. Bucky's hands went to the railing around the small area, his hands going tight enough around the metal that his knuckles went white.

Neither of them said a word as Rhodey coordinated the launch with the airfield ground crews, and then guided the airship slowly into the air and onto a southwesterly heading.

"This ain't natural," Bucky eventually broke his silence to say. "Man's feet weren't meant to leave the ground like this."

Tony chuckled. "That hasn't stopped us," he replied. "And, sure, keeping our feet on the ground might mean we won't fall, but there's no guarantee it'd be any safer. You asked us about our weapons and tech and such last night, so you know that there's always a danger that someone might come at you with a knife or a gun. If you're in a ground vehicle, like a car or a train, there's always a risk that you might crash. If you're on foot, someone in a car might hit you. Life itself is dangerous."

Bucky shuddered. "You paint a grim picture."

"Was it any different the last time you dealt with humans?"

"Guess not," Bucky conceded, his mouth flattening out into an unhappy line. "Though then the dangers were different."

Tony found he kind of doubted that, knowing that humanity had never really lost its cruel impulses, and that the Spanish and Portuguese explorers had been among the cruelest he could think of, of the Europeans of the era. That, though, was a thought he decided was better kept to himself.

Fifteen minutes later, Pepper found them, there. Bucky had ever so gradually relaxed enough to let go of his deathgrip on the railing and look around. There wasn't a huge amount of variability in the landscape below, but it was kind of soothing to watch. Pepper joined them for a few seconds, watching the birds swirl in flocks below them as they woke, before she spoke. "Breakfast is just about ready," she told them. "Come eat."

Suddenly feeling his hunger in a way he hadn't until then, Tony nodded. "I could eat. Come on, Bucky."

"Sure, why not," he agreed, and Pepper took that as her cue to lead them back into the cabin of the airship and up into the galley, where a spread of breakfast foods had been set out and Rhodey was already seated at the trestle table, meaning Jarvis was at the helm for the time being.

The rest of the morning and afternoon passed in something of a haze. Once he'd eaten, Tony had taken himself back to his bedroom-slash-study and settled in to do some reading. It was only good sense to refresh his memory on what the details of what he'd seen and learned the last time he'd been in the Argentine mountains, seeing as he was about to go back. And, sure, it wasn't the same area. He'd been a lot farther south, last time, properly in Patagonia and on the Chilean side of the border, so this would be a journey into the unknown as far as he was concerned.

Not that that bothered him, strictly speaking, but it would be harder to prepare for the trip without knowing what awaited them besides mountains and a potentially active volcano, and that was sure to put his team on edge considering that none of them truly knew where Bucky's loyalties lay. Even he, with his inclination to trust the sphinx -- within reason -- was a bit wary of entering that kind of a situation. It might be smart to ask around about the area while they were in Santiago. Find out about any local legends, and whatnot. Maybe he could have his team do that while they organised the resupply and Tony dealt with the legalities of handing over his assets in trust.

When he'd emerged to find lunch, Tony had spotted Bucky curled up on his bed in the guestroom, in his half-cat form and wrapped in a tight ball around a pillow that looked like it had been stolen off Tony's own bed.

Tony carefully didn't let himself think of that as cute.

Once he'd eaten, he went back to his reading and then took some time to write down what his conclusions in the journal he'd been keeping for this trip. Dinner and both sleep shifts passed in much the same way, but then they were jolted out of the almost meditative calm of the flight.

Jarvis roused him at about 0600 and hissed at him to put his pants on. "Jim thinks we're about to come under attack, and I have to agree. Get on one of the guns and warn Pepper. I'm going back up to the helm."

Still half unconscious but blinking the sleep out of his eyes hurriedly, Tony swore and grabbed for his khakis. "Any idea who it is?"

"No. They're not responding to hails," Jarvis answered with a scowl. "Jim's been trying to contact someone on the ground to find out if the local military's conducting operations in the area, but no one's picking up there, either."

Tony yanked his shirt on without bothering to button it and hurried out of his room to get on the guns as Jarvis had suggested. Of the four of them he was the best shot, so if anyone started shooting at them, it'd be up to him to return fire. "That's a bad sign."

Jarvis nodded. "Get going," he ordered gruffly. "We need to keep ourselves afloat if we can. They're only shadowing us for now, but I suspect that'll change soon. We'll try to stay out of range of their guns if we can."

Stifling a yawn, Tony went. The airship was lightly armoured, on the whole. The cabin and the envelope[7] had been updated consistently throughout the War and they knew it would hold up against small calibre fire coming from the ground. That had been tested a number of times on his adventures as a result of HYDRA's habit of trying to shoot him down. The cabin could even withstand 88mm flak rounds, so long as there weren't too many being flung at it, though the envelope couldn't. But thankfully both Jarvis and Rhodey knew how to dodge that kind of fire [8], so it probably wouldn't be too much of an issue.

No, the planes that had been spotted were by far a greater threat than any kind of as yet not decommissioned artillery pieces on the ground. The planes could easily outmaneuver the airship, leaving them pretty much unable to defend themselves, and punch as many holes in the envelope as they pleased with their wing-mounted machine guns. And, alright, granted, they might nominally be civilian planes. But even civilian planes could have weapons mounted on them -- the airship was a prime example thereof -- and Rhodey was sure enough of their model and equipment loadouts to believe they were military. Worse, so was Jarvis.

All of the evidence, circumstantial though it was, suggested that they'd been sold out to one of their various enemies by someone in the know, or that someone had taken offense to something they'd said or done while they'd been in Brazil. Tony didn't want to believe that that had been Bucky, but he was the only wild card aboard.

The planes could possibly even be affiliated with HYDRA, who were known to operate in South America, and that was a chilling thought. He and his team had been opposed to the extremist group of mad scientists right from the moment they'd become aware of HYDRA's existence, then continued to clash with HYDRA throughout the War... and beyond. It was hardly outside the bounds of probability that they'd tracked him here with the intent to finish what they'd started when they'd turned his father into that monster. 

He shoved that train of thought away with a shudder. He needed to stay focused.

Knocking on Pepper's door, he waited until he got an answer. "Come on, Potts," he said quietly, opening the door a crack. "You won't want to miss this. There's a good chance we're about to come under fire."

With a protesting groan, she sat up and growled at him. "Couldn't they have waited a few hours?"

Amused, Tony shook his head. "'Fraid not," he quipped, then sobered again. "I'll be down on the guns. Jarvis and Rhodey are at the helm."

In fact, he had to admit, their attackers had picked their moment perfectly. The sun was about to rise in the northeastern sky, and the moment it did, he'd be shooting blind. It gave the approaching fighters a huge advantage, and the airship's best -- hell, only -- option was to run and try to hold them off long enough to cross the Argentinian border, whereupon they could call for help from the local military.

Tony settled himself into the gunner's seat, such as it was. Tucked away at the back of the lower floor of the cabin, behind the workshop and armoury, it was nearly invisible to anyone unfamiliar with the airship's interior, and only just big enough for two gunners, though one man would suffice, if he knew how to operate both sets of guns.

Once he was in position it seemed like the world went quiet, and it wasn't a calm sort of quiet, either. The squadron of fighters was just visible off their starboard beam in the northeastern sky, silhouetted against the gradually fading stars.

Sunrise was approaching, and the sky was incrementally going the dull metallic grey of false dawn.

Miles passed, minutes crawling by, and the squadron made no move to attack. It left Tony's skin crawling. What were they waiting for? The airship couldn't open fire without severe repercussions. He had to wait them out, and never mind that it was scraping his nerves raw with sandpaper to just wait with the metaphorical Sword of Damocles dangling over his neck.

"Tony?" Bucky spoke up from the doorway, making him just about jump out of his skin.

With a shuddering breath, he peeled his hands off the guns' triggers. "Do me a favour," he answered, hearing the rasp in his voice, "and don't surprise me like that while I have a gun in my hand."

Bucky had the grace to look a bit abashed. "Right. Sorry."

"Did you need something? I thought you were asleep," Tony inquired, stretching and flexing his hands to keep them from cramping. 

"I was," Bucky agreed. "Now I'm not. Dawn's comin'. And you're playing a game of cat and mouse."

Tony gave him the stink eye. "Right. And?"

"And I wanted to know why," Bucky replied with a mostly careless shrug. 

"Someone seems to want us dead," Tony answered, and turned to check on the group of fighters again.

They hadn't moved from their position yet and Tony suspected they were waiting for sunrise to make their attack. 

"When he turned back to Bucky, the sphinx's expression was dark. "Who?"

"No idea," Tony told him with an approximation of a cheerful grin. "I have a lot of enemies, but you're the only foreign element aboard right now and to the best of my knowledge we didn't step on anyone's toes while we were in Brazil."

The statement got him a shocked and hurt look. "You think I betrayed you?"

"I don't know what to think." Tony didn't like seeing the hurt look on Bucky's face. He didn't like it at all. But he needed to know what was going on.

Bucky eyed him a bit warily. "What would persuade you that it wasn't my doing?"

"First things first. We have to deal with this attack," Tony dodged the question he had no answer for, "then we can discuss that issue."

With a huff and a nod that implied he saw right through the tactic, Bucky accepted that. "Fine, but afterwards I'll have to insist on an answer to my question."

Silently, Bucky settled in beside him on the second gun, giving Tony an expectant look. "Well," he prompted after a few seconds passed in silence, "you gonna show me how this works or not?"

Giving in, Tony did. It didn't take long, and then Bucky was sighting in on one of the fighters pacing them.

"So what are you waiting for?" Bucky asked him. "If you're sure they'll attack, why aren't you shooting them now?"

"If we shoot at them and they weren't planning to attack, then we'd be in a lot of trouble and they'd have every right to shoot us down," Tony said, feeling the frown tug at his features. "And by shooting first we give them the advantage; even if they were planning an attack, they could claim that they weren't and we wouldn't be able to prove a thing."

Bucky growled something savage under his breath, then added, "Mortal politics. They're even murkier than the gods'."

The absurdity of that statement made Tony shake his head, feeling a mix of bemusement and disbelief. "If we're right about their intentions, we won't have to wait long," he pointed out. "The sun will be rising soon, and that's when they'll make their move, if they're going to."

"Then we'd better be ready for them," Bucky agreed. "What am I aiming for?"

"Well," Tony considered that. "The weakest point of any plane is its pilot. Without one, it'll crash on its own, sooner or later. But they're protected pretty well by the glass canopies on their fighters. After that the next weakest points are the control surfaces on the back edges of the wings and at the tail of the plane. Break those and the plane can't maneuver anymore."

The explanation for him a determined nod. "Got it."

They sat in their seats in silence after that. Somewhat to his own surprise, Tony didn't mind that at all. The mood was calm despite the looming danger of the fighters on the horizon, and Bucky seemed content to sit quietly. Whenever Tony glances over at the sphinx, he got the impression of a cat poised to pounce. Once he even got an eyeful of Bucky's hindquarters wiggling in impatience and had to stifle his amusement.

And then, with a suddenness that was shocking after the long stillness, the sun created the treetops, blinding them, and the fighters heading changed to put them on an intercept course.

Tony swore, squinting and tilting his head in an attempt to clear his vision, and took aim again. "Don't shoot yet," he said, more to himself than to Bucky, "steady."

Bucky gave him a wry look then turned back to the sights of his gun. "Don't lose your nerve, now," he quipped, intent on his chosen target.

In almost the same moment the first shots rang out, then pinged against the side of the airship's cabin. 

With a feral sounding growl, Bucky shot back, his expression fiercely pleased.

Tony couldn't help staring at the exultant sphinx for a long moment before he turned back to his gun and took aim at the fighter at the back of the squadron. He didn't want any of the pilots turning tail to run back to their masters with a report. It was bad enough that his enemies had surprised them here, he didn't want any reinforcements being sent on account of a straggler that escaped to tell tales.

Two more fighters went down, one to Bucky's fire and one to Tony's, and then the remaining six were pulling up to soar over the envelope of the airship and come back down on the far side.

Pepper swore colourfully over the radio, and Tony winced even as he took aim at the next fighter. The remaining pilots were flying far more evasively, having seen three of their comrades get shot down in quick succession.

The remaining six fighters broke off into two groups of three, and zoomed nimbly off to the left and right as they gained altitude. The move left one group roughly soaring upwards in front of the airship, on their ten o'clock. The other was pulling a similar maneuver roughly behind them, on their seven. 

Bucky, Tony was discovering, had fantastic aim. He managed to disable one more of the fighters in the group behind them. He joined in, shooting at a second, since the three fighters ahead of the airship were outside of the guns' firing angles and thus safe from him for the moment. 

"Good shooting," he praised Bucky almost absently as he kept working over his chosen target. 

"Not so bad yourself," Bucky replied, sounding very pleased, and fired another burst at the lead fighter of the trio that had passed behind the airship just before they got far enough into the sky to prevent the airship's guns from firing at them. 

"Tony," Pepper called over the radio, "don't let up, were almost at the border and they're about to come back for a second strafing run."

"We got a bit of a problem, though," Rhodey added. "They've punched a number of holes in the envelope, so we'll lose lift eventually, even if you take them all out. Thankfully we're flying on helium, so at least we won't burn down because of their tracers [9]."

"Will we be able to get to Santiago?" Tony demanded as he turned his guns back toward the northeasterly heading the fighters had come from.

"We're not sure," Jarvis put in. "The leaks aren't too bad right now, but over time they'll affect us more and more until we fall out of the sky."

Damn it. "Alright. Get us to the border and see if you can't raise the Argentinian air forces, or anyone else official. If we're going to have to make a crash landing, it'd be nice to have someone come pick us up."

"Eyes on target!" Bucky broke in. "They're comin' back for more."

They'd be lucky if the airship managed to limp to the nearest airfield in Argentina, at this rate. Tony wasn't sure, but he thought there ought to be one within range, provided they didn't take too many more bullets. There was the airport in Tucumán Province [10].

But first, Tony sighted in on one of the remaining fighters, they needed to prevent their attackers from doing any more damage. The four fighters still airborne had regrouped with the sun at their backs and then split into two pairs, pulling up until Tony couldn't see them anymore for the glare, then dove straight for the gun mounts, guns firing.

Tony swore a blue streak and fired back as best he could, knowing most of the bullets were missing, and flinching every time a bullet pinged off the side of the cabin, but all too painfully aware that the fighters had the advantage. 

He knew he hit a couple of times, too, but the shots weren't enough to knock the fighters out of the sky.

Bucky snarled something in a language that Tony didn't understand, and then as though by magic two fighters were tumbling toward the ground far below.

Tony refocused his attention on the last two, now much closer to the airship than was strictly safe for any of the three craft, as they passed underneath it nearly close enough that Tony could have reached out and touched their glass canopies, waited until they'd opened up a bit of distance then took aim. He had to make this count. That was obvious. Another strafing run like that, and the men piloting the fighters could easily get in a lucky shot, given the volume of fire they were flinging at the airship.

Pulling the trigger once more, the motion almost gentle, Tony opened up on the nearer of the two fighters, and watched as he managed to score a hit on the fuel tank, which quickly caught fire thanks to the incendiary compounds in the airship's tracer rounds, forcing the pilot to break off the attack. The last remaining plane turned to follow him, but Tony knew better than to allow that. He took aim once more, and then watched with a mixture of regret and satisfaction rushing through him as half of the fighter's starboard wing sheared off.

He hated that it was necessary, but letting the stragglers report in and return to their base only allowed their enemies to conserve their strength. Better to disable or destroy their equipment, and ensure their men were wounded enough not to be able to fight.

That did mean that there were some fatalities among the casualties he caused, but in a situation where it was him or them? 

Tony leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

Death seemed to dog his footsteps, of late. Perhaps it would be for the best if he just disappeared in the course of this one last adventure and never returned.

His team might mourn him, but they'd recover, and then at least he wouldn't be sowing the remaining seeds of war that lingered in his pocket, wherever he went.

"Tony?" Bucky sounded tentative. "Are you alright?"

He could only offer their guest a crooked smile. "Sure."

Not wanting to let Bucky follow that line of questioning to its inevitable conclusion, he toggled his radio again. "Rhodey? What's the sitrep?"

"Not great, Boss," his pilot replied, sounding angry. "We can fly for another two hours, maybe two and a half, but then we'll fall out of the sky."

"Is that the optimistic estimate or the realistic one?" Tony asked in reply. 

If they did have two hours or so to work with, he was fairly sure they could reach Tucumán's airport, even with a few small holes in the envelope, and once they were there they could take advantage of the stop to patch up the airship as well as refuel.

"Somewhere in between," Rhodey said after a short hesitation.

"If my estimate of our position is correct, we should be able to get to Tucumán inside that two and a half hours of estimated flight time," he suggested.

"And if we fall short?" Jarvis asked him, stress audible in his voice.

"I guess we'll have to have someone come pick us up, after all." Tony let his rueful grin sound in his voice. "We don't really have a lot of choice in the matter, old friend."

"Hmph," Jarvis huffed at him. "Guess one of us'd better radio the airport, then."

* * *

The rest of their trip, such as it was, was calm. Well, calm but for the ever encroaching threat that they would be forced into a crash landing. The idea made Bucky pace nervously, though he kept it to the guest room he'd been offered rather than doing so out in the open. Rhodey and Jarvis spent the time cautiously checking and rechecking how much lift they had left and redistributing the airship’s ballast. For his part, Tony stayed out of his team’s way. He couldn't contribute much to their efforts to keep the airship afloat, so he busied himself updating his journal and discussing the dogfight with Pepper, who wanted to know every last detail he could recall and then some for her write up of the events.

As time passed and they hurried onwards, Tony could feel the gradual change in air pressure that accompanied their unwilling descent. 

About an hour after they'd crossed the border into Argentina, a few more fighters appeared in the horizon, leaving them all tense and unhappy, but this squadron responded to their hails and explained that they were only there to fly escort.

Jarvis, still on edge, had only been partly mollified by that, and insisted on keeping a close eye on them. Rhodey had agreed.

"Mortal politics," Bucky grumbled again, watching their caution. "Even after they've declared their intentions, you won't trust."

Pepper had sniffed at him. "It's not impossible that the Argentinian military might take offense to our presence. We've not had very cordial relationships with many governments."

"That's unfortunately true," Tony agreed. "Usually because of events we had no control over."

"What? You mean like that time HYDRA got hold of that artifact you were after and used it to blow up the Panama Canal?" Rhodey asked sardonically.

Bucky eyed their pilot. "I can't tell if that's meant to be a joke or not. What's a Panama Canal?"

The question broke some of the tension and the topic changed. Tony and Pepper spent a few minutes explaining the Panama Canal and then another half hour talking about its impact on economics and then, almost before Tony realised it, they were mooring the airship in Tucumàn.

Tony and Jarvis disembarked, albeit after a fairly extended discussion with the military that had escorted them, and set about getting the airship fixed back up. It took the entirety of the day for them to get the craft airworthy again. They had to go over the envelope with a fine toothed comb and patch all the bulletholes -- which had taken ages and Tony was sure they'd likely missed one or two somewhere despite the care they'd taken -- and arrange to have the helium to refill the envelope shipped out to the airport for them.

It would take another day for it to arrive, and in the interim they'd be confined to the airport, seeing as they didn't have any travel papers for Bucky.

They passed the time aboard the airship, and took the opportunity to eat, rest, and clean themselves up properly. Pepper declared her intention to do her laundry, and got an ever-curious Bucky's attention immediately with that. She'd ended up spending a fairly large portion of the day explaining to him what a laundry machine was and how it worked. The sphinx had wanted to go with her while she sought out a laundromat but been gently overruled by Jarvis.

Tony gratefully sent a couple of changes of clothes with her to get cleaned -- those he'd used for the hike out to Bucky's temple -- as did Rhodey and Jarvis.

About the time that she returned, they'd received the helium they needed for the remainder of their trip and set about reinflating the envelope so that they could continue. Rather than fly overnight again, though, since they were close enough to their destination to reach it in about six hours, they decided to sleep aboard the airship while it was moored and continue in the morning.

That evening, after dinner, Bucky finally lost patience with his avoidance tactics and ambushed Tony while he was writing in his journal about the various fixes to the airship and their costs in time and money.

"Well?" Bucky demanded, seemingly appearing out of thin air at Tony's elbow and making him jump.

Tony scowled down at the large dark line of ink that made parts of his writing border on illegible. He'd have to rewrite that last bit. 

He set down his pen and pushed his journal away before he turned to face Bucky squarely. "Well, what?"

"You never answered me," the sphinx told him, apropos of nothing, and as cryptic as all the legends claimed they were.

Baffled, Tony just stared at him for a beat, trying to work out what Bucky was referring to. "I didn't?"

Rolling his eyes, Bucky muttered something about mortal memory that was borderline insulting. "You implied that I caused the attack that forced us to come here," he said, as though talking to someone stupid, "and I wanted to know what proof you would accept that I did no such thing."

Oh. That. Tony bit back a wince. This conversation could be tricky to navigate.

"What proof can you offer me?" He asked after a beat, not wanting to demand something that would offend or be deemed impossible somehow.

"None but my word." Bucky watched him carefully.

Tony considered him in return. He had no idea what the expression on Bucky's face meant, but he got the impression the sphinx was very intent on his response to that simple statement.

He definitely didn't want to offend Bucky, or anger him. Unsure what to say, he shrugged, knowing that he had to answer. "I suppose that's all I can ask for," he said slowly. "We offered you our hospitality, after all."

That got him a somewhat tentative nod from Bucky, who simply stood and left the room.

Tony stared after him for a few seconds before he went back to working on his journal entry. That conversation had been a little overdue, really, he had to admit. In retrospect, it was somewhat surprising that Bucky had waited almost two days to pursue the point, given how important it had appeared to be to him.

The time passed almost unnoticed, after that. Almost before he knew it, it was dark outside his window and Pepper was calling him to join them for dinner. The meal itself was nothing really special, either, and didn't stand out in his memory at all as he prepared himself for bed, and then poured himself into it.

Just after dawn the following morning they lifted off once more, their heading southwesterly, and left the airport in Tucumàn behind. The remainder of their trip to Santiago was uneventful, and as they came in for a landing outside Chile's capital city at approximately 3 pm, local time, Tony took a moment to thank all the gods he knew of and a few he was pretty sure he didn't that they'd arrived safely.

"It's been a long trip getting here, Boss," Rhodey commented from his position at the helm.

"It has," Tony agreed. "But from here on in hopefully things will ease a little." 

Jarvis made an aggravated sound. "You just had to go and say that, didn't you," he muttered darkly. "Now everything that can go wrong, will."

Laughing, Tony nodded. "I guess we'll see, old bird. Is everything in place for our disembarkation?"

"We still don't know how to get our resident cat man off the airship," Rhodey replied, "but the rest is dealt with."

"I c'n get off this airship of yours unseen," Bucky put in, making them all jump, what with how silently he'd appeared at Tony's shoulder. "Don't worry 'bout me."

Tony raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't contest the statement though he didn't see how that was possible. "Right, well, you won't have to for at least a few hours, unless you want to go out and explore the city a bit. I've got my legal errands to run, and the others will be working on resupplying the airship. We need to top off our foodstocks, refuel, and do I don't even know what else."

Bucky considered that briefly. "I will accompany you, Seeker of Knowledge," he decided, and Tony made a face at the title.

"I told you, it's 'Tony' or 'Mr. Stark'," he grumbled. "Especially if we're not aboard the airship. People will start wondering what we're doing and who we are, and that's potentially very bad." 

Rhodey nodded. "It's true. There're plenty of people out to kill the Boss, and it's always smarter if he tries not to draw attention."

"Not that he bothers most of the time," Jarvis put in, making Bucky frown.

"Then it's even more important that I go with Tony," he reiterated.

With a shake of his head, Tony turned to head back to his room. "You three go ahead and finish your discussion. I'm going to go get my things together so that I can prove who I am to the border police and the notary."

He could feel the look the others exchanged behind his back and had to resist the urge to roll his eyes at them. They were being overprotective again, and it really irked him for all that he knew it was because they cared. 

A beat later, Bucky was at his left shoulder and a half step behind him, as had become his wont. "No need for discussion. Your team'll do what they need to, to get your airship back in shape, and I'll go into the city with you."

"And how do you plan to get off the airport grounds without travel papers?" Tony asked him, not letting the point go. "Strictly speaking, you're here illegally and that's liable to get us all in trouble if we're not damned careful. As it is, just having you on the airship is a risk."

Bucky sniffed at him. "You keep doubting me. Why?"

"Because I have no idea what your capabilities are," Tony shot back. "If you can get past border control unseen, fine, just do it. But I have to assume you're limited to the abilities you've demonstrated to me, for lack of more accurate information."

That, to his surprise, actually got him an almost pleased look from Bucky. "I guess that's reasonable," he conceded. "I can get past them. Just do what you'd do normally and don't look for me."

It was a weird request and reminded him oddly strongly of the tale of Orpheus and his lady love. "Alright," he agreed, picking his words carefully. "What should I expect to happen, then?"

"Nothing. I won't be seen," Bucky told him cryptically. "By anyone."

Including him, based on the implications there. Tony shook his head but couldn't help his bemused smile. "Good enough for me. Let's go, then."

"Is this notary of yours far away?" Bucky asked as Tony reached his door and shoved it open, sounding almost hopeful.

Tony rather suspected that Bucky was hoping to wander the city and explore as they walked. He shrugged and started gathering the papers and cash he'd need for his errand. "I have no idea. I'll have to ask around and find one."

"I see." Bucky said, then was silent for a few seconds, considering that, as Tony finished tucking his papers and wallet away in his pockets where they'd be safe from pickpockets.

Catching Bucky's eyes and grinning, Tony hooked his thumbs in his belt. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Bucky said, and eyed him. "This better not turn into another attack that you blame on me."

Huffing at him, Tony turned and led the way out of his room. "If we're attacked, we'll have other things to worry about."

"Are you even carrying any weapons?" Bucky demanded.

"Only my pistol. More would arouse suspicion on the part of the airport personnel. Even this is pushing it, and I have my permit for it in hand." Tony shrugged. "We'll have to make do."

Growling something under his breath as he followed Tony down the stairs to the lower level of the airship and then down the gangway, Bucky did a great impression of a very angry breath of wind.

Tony was impressed. Somehow, though he knew Bucky was still at his shoulder, every one of his senses insisted there was no one there. It was surprisingly difficult to follow directions and not look for the presence he could feel but not see. He had to pause as his feet hit the tarmac and take a deep breath, forcing the awareness of Bucky's magic back out of the forefront of his mind. He'd been very suspicious of the sphinx recently, and that really wasn't on account of any actions of Bucky's. The sphinx hadn't actually done anything to deserve that. The opposite, if anything.

He'd make this work.

If only because he wanted to find out if Bucky's help on his quest would lead him somewhere worthwhile.

The fact that he was strongly attracted to Bucky had nothing to do with it.

It didn't.

Kicking himself back into motion before Bucky could get impatient, he strolled over to the border guards' post, bold as brass and projecting 'nothing to hide' with all his might. Five minutes later, after a bit of scrutiny and the usual questions about the nature of his visit, he was making his way to the airport's main building in search of a phone book or someone he could interrogate. Followed, perhaps, by a quick search for a hired car.

After they were out of sight and earshot of the border guards, Bucky seemed to appear out of thin air and made Tony jump. Fighting for breath in the hot dry air and hissing a few choice words at the sphinx, he kept walking. "Do me a favour, and don't do that. I do have a heart condition."

Bucky didn't dignify that with a response, but he did look a little sheepish so Tony let the matter rest.

The two of them stepped into the airport's main building, somewhat cooler than the outdoors, and Tony scanned the space. It wasn't overly large, but there was what appeared to be a concierge nearby. Deciding that was a likely place to start his search, Tony veered off towards it, limbering up his Spanish, and felt Bucky follow. The lady working there seemed pleased to see him, and he did what he could to charm her without actually promising anything or leading her on. The efforts had him the information he wanted within five minutes, and he left her with an autographed calling card and a smile as mementos of the encounter.

As they left the main building of the airport in search of a car to hire and stepped back out into the harsh mid-afternoon sun, Bucky made a quiet sound that Tony would've called a hiss, had Bucky been a cat. Turning and catching the sphinx' eyes, he paused just long enough to get a grumble and a glare in response.

"Something wrong, Bucky?" Tony asked him, not sure what to make of the sphinx' reaction to the encounter. It was bordering on possessive.

"Did you have to flirt with her?" Bucky asked him, sounding like he wanted to go back inside the airport building and do something to undo what Tony had thought harmless.

"No, but it made her happy and got me what I wanted at no cost other than a bit of flattery," Tony replied carefully, feeling like he was picking his way across a series of rocks set in a river with a strong current. "I take it you don't approve."

Bucky stayed silent, glaring mulishly down at the sidewalk.

They walked for a while without speaking, until Tony spotted a driver standing by his car and sauntered towards him.

"You gonna flirt with him, too?" Bucky asked, his voice a low, almost dangerous, rumble.

Biting down on a sigh, Tony forced away his annoyance. "No, Bucky, I'm not," he replied, then turned to negotiate the fare for the trip into the city center and back. They'd need to set a time and place for the driver to pick them up for the ride back or find a new driver in town if he refused.

Thankfully, the man was happy enough to bring them back to the airport and after some haggling, they were underway. The airport wasn't that far from the city, as distances went, but if they'd tried to walk to the notary's they'd have arrived long after shop hours were over.

Instead, about fifteen minutes later, having made idle conversation with their driver, they were alighting in front of the notary's office. Tony paid the first half of the fare, as agreed, and turned to Bucky as the driver took off again for the time being. "Come on, we'll get my errand done and then explore until it's time to head back," he suggested.

Bucky, still looking like he'd bitten into a lemon, nodded. "A'right. Let's get this over with, then."

"It'll be boring," Tony warned him. "Legal things invariably are, even if you're the one doing them."

Squaring his shoulders, Bucky huffed at him. "Stop makin' excuses and get movin'," he demanded. "Otherwise we'll miss our ride back to the airship."

With a chuckle, Tony followed his 'orders'. "Fine, fine."

Predictably, the next hour and a half passed in a haze of legalese and paperwork. Actually doing what he wanted was mostly a matter of signing the right documents, as with much of anything else of that nature, but working out which forms those were took time.

The notary lived up to the concierge's recommendation, though, and Tony was glad he'd invested the effort to ask, even if it had made Bucky act weirdly like a jealous cat seeing its owner be friendly with someone he considered a rival.

Eventually, they made their way back out into the slowly fading afternoon light, just before shop hours ended. Bucky seemed to physically uncurl in relief, and Tony grinned at him as he stretched. "Bet you're glad that's over."

"You could say that," Bucky agreed, the set of his shoulders relaxing and his spine straightening a bit until he stood at his full height.

"So, you wanted to explore," Tony offered, "what did you want to see?"

"What is there to see?" Bucky shot back. "I ain't never been in this part of the world."

Considering that for a moment, Tony took a moment to orient himself, then led Bucky into the historic old district near the center of town. It might not be the most spectacular he'd ever seen, but there were some lovely examples of 17th, 18th, and 19th century architecture to be seen, along with what amounted to a transcript of the town's history, as immortalised in its buildings.[11]

They spent a pleasant hour and a half walking around and discussing the way the town had grown, evolving over time culturally and economically. Bucky had turned out not to be much of a fan of the way the colonial era had affected the indigenous peoples, which Tony generally agreed with him about for all that the modernisations it had brought had actually brought some benefits along with the downsides.

When the time came for them to meet their driver for the trip back to the airport, Bucky looked torn, like he honestly wanted to linger there longer just to keep Tony talking as much as he wanted his dinner and his bed.

Tony took the opportunity to put a hand on Bucky's shoulder and turn him back toward the rendezvous point he and the driver had agreed on. "If this trip ends well," he pointed out, "we can always come back here afterward and sped some more time."

"And if it doesn't, this might be the only chance we have," Bucky shot back hotly, then seemed to curl in on himself.

Tony nodded. "That's fair," he admitted, his voice going quiet, "but you can't think that way. Going into any dangerous situation with that kind of defeatist thinking is only going to ensure something really does go wrong."

They didn't say anything more on the topic throughout the ride back to the airport, restricting themselves to making small talk with the driver once more. He wanted to know how they'd enjoyed the city, so Tony regaled the guy with stories about their stroll through the historic district for the remainder of the trip. 

It was only once they were back aboard the airship, that the conversation resumed, but it wasn't on the same topic.

Pepper, Rhodey and Jarvis, having evidently finished with the resupply were sitting in the galley and chatting as Tony and Bucky passed the door. Naturally they were immediately hailed and interrogated about their trip.

"Well?" Rhodey wanted to know, "did you get it done?"

Tony nodded, seating himself in his usual spot at the table. "I did, and we had enough time to go explore a little in the historic quarters of the city."

Pepper smiled at him almost conspiratorially, then let the expression smooth out into straightforward interest. "What did you like best, Bucky?"

The sphinx considered that as he moved to the cupboard, took down a glass and turned on the tap for some water. "The architecture, I think."

"What about it?" Pepper persisted, with a significant look at Tony. 

Bucky gave her a long level glance, evaluating, looking like he wanted to try to see through her to her underlying motivations, and took a sip of water as he leaned casually back against the counter beside the tap. "The explanations," he said eventually, catching Tony's eyes in turn.

What that meant, Tony wasn't sure, but he suspected he smelled a rat. Pepper was trying to maneuver the pair of them into something, and he wasn't sure what or why.

Jarvis picked that moment to change the subject, deeming their genuflection to the institution of smalltalk accomplished. "So you enjoyed yourselves and got the job done. Good. So what's next?"

With a shrug, Tony turned to Bucky. "How far is it from here to our destination?"

"On foot? Probably a week, if we take it in easy stages. With your airship," Bucky paused and considered the question. "Maybe two days?"

"If we take the airship," Rhodey asked him, trying to work out the logistics of the trip, "can we get to wherever we need to be and then back to the airship before nightfall?"

Bucky shrugged. "It's possible, but that’ll be difficult."

"What's waiting for us in there?" Jarvis asked him. 

"Only the Seeker of Knowledge may enter," Bucky replied slowly, clearly picking his words carefully and his enunciation going precise and formal. "As to what lies inside... Well, he will need to pass a series of Trials if he wishes to leave again, alive. I cannot reveal what they are or how to approach them. Nor can I enter, myself. That is forbidden. But I can tell you how to get there. Once we have reached the valley northeast of the mountain, you must follow the stream up its center. Do not heed any voices that may call to you, no matter how they might tempt you. They will do their best to lead you astray and prevent you from reaching the Trials. You will reach a small pool fed by a waterfall that tumbles over a cliff edge some twenty meters high. There you must find the small tunnel at the bottom of the pool and swim through it. Do not fear. It will be darker than the darkest night, and feel deeper than the ocean depths, but the passage itself is short. On the far side, the Trials begin, and that is all I may say on the subject. The final stage of the trip, to enter the domain of the Trials, is one that's ideally started at daybreak or just before sunset."

"And if I pass the Trials?" Tony asked, considering the information.

"If you pass the Trials you will be granted audience," Bucky told him. "Much as you were while I was acting as Temple Guardian."

"Sounds straightforward enough," Tony said decisively. "You four will need to find yourselves a mooring spot at the foot of the volcano or set up camp at the base of the final climb, somehow. If the area turns out to be as narrow a space as it looks on the map, there won't be a large enough flat spot inside the valley itself. Now that we're resupplied, you've got the stocks to wait it out for a week or two. If I'm not back by then... well. You know what to do."

Pepper took a stuttering breath and cleared her throat. "You'd better be back. You owe me so many stories to print."

Rhodey and Jarvis simply nodded silently.

All of them knew that a life of adventure also meant a life of danger. And that always carried with it the risk that he wouldn't be going home alive. To a lesser degree, that also applied to his team. He, Rhodey and Jarvis all remembered what had happened to Virgil. Pepper had heard the story, and knew the risks were real. The stakes this time were higher than usual, it had to be said, but the potential outcomes hadn't changed. Either he'd come out of this smiling and with a new tale to tell, or they'd be carrying him home on his metaphorical shield. Assuming there was even a body to bury. 

Bucky turned and left the room without a word, the set of his shoulders telegraphing his upset. Bucky… well, Tony wasn't sure what knowledge Bucky had of adventures and death, but he'd been alive for a long time and definitely seemed keenly aware of the risks, himself.

Tony stared after him for a moment, baffled -- Bucky had offered to help him and hadn't been nearly this demonstrative about how much he disliked the idea a couple of days ago when Tony'd met him -- then shrugged it off. Cats were contrary creatures. 

Rubbing his palms together, Tony suggested. "Let's prepare for takeoff then sack out. We'll get moving early tomorrow morning, and what happens, happens."

"Que sera, sera," Rhodey muttered, mostly under his breath, then sighed. "You got it, Boss. At least, if this is the last time we go questing together, it'll have been a good one."

No one had anything to say to that, so they dispersed to their tasks after a few seconds of slightly melancholy silence.

* * *

The night passed slowly, and Tony spent a larger portion of it than usual staring at his ceiling, unable to sleep. So he spent the time considering Bucky's latest strange reaction. 

Bucky had to have known right from the start that this would be chancy. He'd said as much, albeit couched in cryptic riddle. And nothing much had changed since. Not Tony's circumstances, not Bucky's, not the terms of the quest he was about to embark on.

It was odd.

On a more personal level, he had been more strongly attracted to the sphinx the longer he knew Bucky, but that was his cross to bear. Getting involved with mythical creatures never ended well, and he had no desire to end up cursed or something because he made some kind of unwanted advances that couldn't be passed off as a bad joke. Sure, the ancient Greeks had been very sanguine about same sex relationships, but that didn't necessarily extend to their gods or the mythical creatures they'd talked about. Human cultural norms didn't apply to them, after all. Immortality had a way of rendering most human concerns irrelevant. 

Closing his eyes for one more attempt at sleep, Tony bit down on a weary sigh.

Morning came quickly, after that, as though it had been waiting for him to reach that conclusion. It felt like bare seconds had passed since he'd closed his eyes, when Jarvis woke him for breakfast and coerced him into charging up the repulsor pump one last time before he ventured off the airship. And then they were in the air and heading off. 

An hour and a half later, as the sun came up over the tops of the mountains they'd made their way into, they reached the volcano Bucky had described, and suddenly everything felt more real.

The rope ladder lowered, Bucky, Pepper and Jarvis accompanied him down, and together the four of them improvised a mooring point for the airship. It was essentially a large stake driven into the rock beneath their feet and braced, but it ought to hold, provided no storms or strong winds swept through the region. 

By the time they were through with that, it was nearly noon, and the others hustled Tony back aboard the airship for lunch.

It was tempting to make jokes about his last meal being out of a tin, but for his team’s sake he swallowed the words back down.

And then it was time. He caught his team's eyes, one by one, and very deliberately didn't say anything like goodbye. 

"Keep the engines warm," Tony said simply. "Refuel and restock if you need to, but you know the rules of this engagement. If you don't hear from me in the next two weeks, get out of here and back to New York."

Jarvis left the room, and Tony knew it had to be a mix of guilt and sorrow driving his old friend mercilessly.

Pepper followed, after a long look back at Tony that revealed the tears caught in her eyes and threatening to spill. "If you don't go home," she said quietly and solemnly over her shoulder, "I'm fairly sure neither will Jarvis."

"She's right, Boss," Rhodey put in, and left to take his usual post at the helm.

And then it was only him and Bucky left in the room, a tension between them that had never been there before. "Your friends are loyal to the end," he commented. "That is worth far more than gold or riches."

"It is," Tony agreed, wishing he could spare them the agony of waiting for word. "But this changes nothing, really. It only makes them face the fact that I have a weakness that makes me very vulnerable."

Bucky gave him an inscrutable look and said nothing.

Tony shrugged and turned to get his pack out of his room. He'd be bringing the minimum with him that he needed. A box of waterproof matches, a small lantern and fuel, a canteen and some tightly wrapped food, his journal and pencil, and his pistol and some ammunition.

Bucky followed him out of the room and stuck close, as though for comfort. It took him a while to break the silence. "I’d go with ya if I could," he said.

"I know," Tony acknowledged the truth of that. Bucky had been very loyal and protective right from the start of their short acquaintance. "But you said it yourself, I have to do this myself."

"Why?"

Surprised, Tony looked up from his pack, where he'd started double checking the contents. "Why what?"

"Why do you have to do this? This ain't necessary," Bucky asked him, sounding like he wanted to find a way to keep Tony aboard the airship. 

Tony sat on his bed and patted the spot next to him. He waited until Bucky had sat down beside him before he answered. "Necessary... well, maybe not. Maybe I could keep going as I am for a while longer. But my health is getting worse and worse. Not through any fault of mine or anyone around me."

He tapped at his chest, letting his fingernails hit the glass surface of the repulsor pump’s cover. "The human body isn't meant to have large chunks of metal and glass in it. That makes it vulnerable to all kinds of things including infection. And it's tiring. I'm not sure how long I could keep living like this," he admitted, saying the words aloud for the first time, for all that he'd been thinking them for years.

Bucky looked horrified. "Oh. You mean that thing in your chest ain't magic?"

Tony smiled crookedly. "No, unfortunately not. If it were, it probably wouldn't cause me as much pain as it does. And it would be less likely to fail."

The horrified expression intensified. "And you've been living like this for years?"

"I've also been searching for a way to fix it for years," Tony pointed out. "Seeker of Knowledge, remember?"

"If that was your attempt to make me feel better, it didn't work," Bucky bit out, then slumped forward, putting his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. "I begin to understand why you insisted on this quest."

Tony put a hand between Bucky's shoulder blades in another attempt to offer comfort. "Even if I didn't try this crazy quest you suggested, I'd be in the same situation as I am now. At least if I try, I've got a chance at success. If I don't, I fail automatically. By doing this, I lose nothing."

"Nothing except whatever time you'd have had left!" Bucky snapped, and stormed out.

Unsure what to think about that, Tony watched the empty doorway for a moment then tossed his pack onto one shoulder. His pistol loaded and in its holster, he pulled on a jacket and his hat.

Deeming himself as ready as he was going to get, he made his way to the lower floor of the cabin and the rope ladder they'd be lowering. Tony'd decided he'd ride it down to the bottom as the reel it was on emptied. It'd be hauled right back up as soon as he was on the ground. Pepper was standing next to the controls for the ladder, waiting for him, a worried crease between her eyes.

"Be careful down there," she told him sternly, as though he never was, and threw her arms around him in a thoroughly unexpected move. 

Giving her a moment, he waited out the hug and took the opportunity to put his hand carefully between her shoulder blades. "You know me," he answered seriously. "I might take risks, but only when the alternatives are worse."

She stepped back, and rolled her eyes at his as she took her place by the winch controls. "That's a matter of opinion," she grumbled, but hit the switch that started the winch turning and the ladder lowering.

Once it had unwound about six feet, she stopped it, and gave Tony time to climb down it to perch on the lowest rung. A landscape spread out beneath him that all but took his breath away. It never seemed to matter how many times he'd seen mountains and nearly untouched wilderness, it always inspired a sense of awe in him. 

The volcano itself was the classical conical shape associated with those formed by successive lava flows, rather than explosive eruptions, and reminded him of those he'd seen in Hawai’i or the relatively nearby Maipo[12]. 

The area around them was primarily rocky and bare of most vegetation. The soil wasn't deep enough for forest and the climate edging towards too dry. [13] The lack of lush vegetation lent the region a very monochromatic feel, with the color -- or lack thereof -- coming directly from the exposed rock of the Andes and the brown grasses that managed to eke out their survival, clinging to it.

As he admired the view, Pepper lowered him toward the ground and the airship drifted gently in the light winds.

It wasn't long before he had his feet planted on the mountainside, through, the landing sending a shock through him from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Somehow it made everything feel more real.

Calling up Bucky's description of the route again, Tony set off. He settled his pack more comfortably on his back and strode off along the side of the mountain, keeping to the same altitude and moving at a pace that let him adjust to the much thinner air as he walked.

He took the easiest route possible to the valley Bucky had indicated, and began carefully picking his way along the small stream at its deepest point. The stream fed into a small lake at the base of the volcano, whose water glittered brightly in the afternoon light.

A glance at his watch revealed he'd already been moving for an hour, for all that it had felt more like five minutes. Pausing to take a sip from his canteen, Tony looked back down the valley and saw his team working to secure the airship in place. He couldn't tell who was who but it was easy enough to see that Jarvis and Rhodes were driving the anchor that would tether the airship and Pepper was at the helm, keeping her steady. 

When he looked back down at the path he was to tread, away from the warmth of his hearth and his family, the voices Bucky had warned him of started whispering to him.

 _why are you here?_ they asked tonelessly in whispers of sound that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. 

Tony ignored the query and kept walking, taking his time and pausing to rest every so often.

 _coming here will bring you nothing, you know._ They tried again as he reached what looked like a pleasant pool to bathe in.

Its statement was potentially even true, but Tony wasn't the type of person to let the fear of failure turn him away. He'd "failed" to complete far more missions than he'd succeeded in bringing to a good conclusion, but even so-called failures had their value. Even when he hadn't found what he'd originally set out to find, he'd learned something new or come out the other side of the adventure with a new set of experiences to drawn on for the next.

 _return to your friends,_ the voice suggested, adding some more sternness to its words.

No, Tony told himself, do what you set out to do. He'd come this far. Now he had to make it worthwhile. 

_do not continue,_ the voice whispered when he reached the waterfall fed pool Bucky had described. _you will drown and die in darkness, your body never to be found._

Tony eyed the waterfall, listening to its roar and trying to gauge how disorienting its presence would make the swim. The voice was right about that much. Trying to make this dive would definitely be a risk, and a big one, at that.

But he wasn't deterred. 

This would be the most difficult and dangerous part of his hike. He was already fighting the thin air and his deteriorating health, and this dive would have been a demanding one even if he'd been in top shape.

What this called for was a bit of planning.

Tony eyed the position of the sun. The light wouldn't last much longer, and once night fell he'd have no way to make an attempt at this even halfway safely. Stripping off his shirt and boots he stuffed them in his pack and waded into the pool with a shiver, feeling goosebumps come up all over his body. The water was as icy as it looked dark, and that was more than a little bit intimidating.

Bucky's words seemed to echo in his memory. _Do not fear. It will be darker than the darkest night, and feel deeper than the ocean depths, but the passage itself is short. On the far side, the Trials begin._ Setting his jaw stubbornly, he resolved to continue. Thus far, all of Bucky's instructions had been very precise and accurate, and despite his lingering slight misgivings, he did want to trust the sphinx at least that much.

When the waters reached his waist, he took a deep breath, then dunked himself and tried to survey the bottom of the pool. He couldn't see far enough to make out the passage Bucky had mentioned, but he suspected it would likely be directly beneath the waterfall. Right where the roar of falling water would be the loudest and most disorienting. As it was, even here near the edge of the pool, the pounding pressure waves coming from the fall were surprisingly loud, as though the walls of the pool were reflecting them back up rather than absorbing them. It was going to leave him with a headache and half deafened, if he lingered too long, and that was not a pleasant thought, considering that he would have to face the Trials Bucky had mentioned once he'd made the swim.

But there was no time to linger, lest night fall before he got through the passage, and no one to reassure him, either. It was strange, but he was oddly nervous about this, for all that he'd done this sort of thing often over the course of his years adventuring.

Straightening, he took a fresh breath of air and decided to go for it. Waiting would bring him no further advantage unless he waited all the way through until morning.

 _you must decide,_ the voice whispered to him, answering his question unbidden, as though it could read his thoughts. _continue, or turn back now and never return._

Bucky hadn't mentioned that part.

Tony bit at his lip. Well. It was time to go.

He slung his pack off his shoulders and checked the closures -- it wasn't waterproof, but it would hopefully keep the pool's water out long enough for him to get through the passage without soaking his things completely -- then held it in front of him as he took the plunge.

He aimed as directly for the place he thought the passage was as he could, and to his relief he found it, too. Moments after he'd set his eyes on it, though, it seemed like darkness swallowed him, and the pressure of the water on his body felt like it redoubled with every meter he swam. Just as described.

Feeling his heart start pounding against his ribs and knowing that he'd run out of breath quickly, Tony hurried on, pushing his pack through the passage before him and forcing his shoulders through after it.

It seemed like hours later, that he finally reached the bottom of the passage, which seemed to be U-shaped, and gratefully started swimming upward.

* * *

The pressure and darkness fell away again just as quickly as they'd mounted, and Tony broke the surface of the water on the far side of the passage with a gasp of relief.

He tossed his pack onto the rocky lip of the mouth of the passage and stayed right where he was, shivering with the way the water sapped at his body heat, letting himself catch his breath. Shaking the water out of his hair as best he could, Tony looked around. The passage seemed to have opened on a small cavern, its walls showing evidence of the interference of human hands. Someone had carved this place out of the rock.

Why wasn't all that clear, but Tony wasn't here to find that out. He suspected that the moment he left the water, he'd be at the mercy of whatever being ran the Trials. It was also likely the same being that would be the one to grant him an audience at the end, assuming he passed.

There was nothing and no one in sight, though. He was lingering on the threshold of a small round chamber with the waterfall at his back and a tunnel leading off to his 10 o'clock.

Carefully hauling himself up and out of the flooded passage, Tony shivered anew. "Shoulda thought to bring a towel," he grumbled, fairly sure no one would hear him.

Someone made an amused sound, behind him and to his right, and Tony jumped.

 _you didn't seem like someone who would be concerned over such things,_ the voice from before whispered to him, and Tony turned to look over his shoulder.

Standing between him and the passage he'd seen, was a genderless glowing figure. 

"And who might you be?" Tony inquired, trying to come to grips with the being's sudden entrance and apparent enjoyment of his disgruntled state.

 _my name is of no consequence,_ it responded. _you are here to face the Trials._

Eyeing the being a trifle warily, Tony nodded. "What do I need to know about them?"

The answer he got was fairly predictable.

_nothing. you must enter into the Trials with no expectations. know that your actions will be observed and your intentions weighed._

A thought occurred to him, then, and, his curiousity piqued, Tony asked, "Why are you here, then?"

 _i greet all who would enter my domain,_ the being responded, giving the impression of a shrug. _would you have preferred not to see me?_

"I didn't realise this was your home," Tony responded, dodging the question, since all the answers he could think to offer felt wrong. "Doesn't it get lonely out here?"

He got another bemused sound in response. _time flows differently here. it does not affect me in the same ways as it does the outside world._

"A man out of time," Tony murmured to himself, reminded of the many various deities and personifications of time that he'd read of or heard about [14].

 _i am no man, but the metaphor suits,_ the being agreed. _the Trials will find you as you pass through the tunnel behind me. should you fail, you will never again see the world beyond. should you succeed... well. that remains to be seen._

Then, without further ado, it vanished, as though it had never been.

Tony shivered. What- or whoever it was had clearly been watching from the moment he'd entered the valley, and he had no idea what that meant for his chances of getting through the Trials.

Taking a steadying breath, Tony shoved those thoughts aside, then dug through his pack to take stock. There was a faint glow in the small chamber he'd entered. It was just enough that he could tell what he was doing and likely came from some kind of bioluminescent organism living here in the depths of the mountain. He'd need more light than that to get through this, though, and was consequently very glad that he'd brought his lantern and matches.

Rummaging through his things until he found what he wanted, he pulled out the lantern, roughly the size of his fist, and then the matches, and lit it.

By the flickering light of the small flame it produced, Tony could see that the walls of the chamber were covered in painted murals. Whose hand had produced them, he had no idea, but they were stunning in their colourful variety, and more true to life than he was used to from art that was more than a couple of hundred years old. These murals were likely far older than they appeared. The lack of light in the chamber had clearly preserved the bright colors that had been used, so the age of the paintings was unclear, just at a glance, and the fact that the being had openly said that time flowed differently here...

Tony was almost sure those murals had to be hundreds -- if not thousands -- of years old.

 _by your reckoning,_ the being told him, _they are about 1500 years old. i have seen far older._

He couldn't be sure, but to Tony the being sounded almost pleased. 

Dismissing it as his imagination, he paused long enough to dry off as best he could, then put his shirt and boots on again. No sense in wandering around half dressed if he didn't have to. It was invariably cold underground, far from the warmth of the sun. 

Also unexpected was the way this being, despite how old it claimed to be, had a fairly good grip on modern English. That could be because it was somehow staying up to date. Or it could just be some magical ability to put thoughts, feelings and intentions in Tony's head and let him make sense of them himself. Telepathy wasn't outside the realm of possibilities and there was no telling how that would react to a language barrier based on the evolution of slang.

Tony got the impression that someone had cleared his throat and shook off his slight reverie. “Right,” he muttered to himself. “Guess that's my cue.”

Wondering just what lay ahead of him, Tony advanced toward the passage the being had indicated, shivering a little as his wet pants clung to his legs and sapped the warmth away from his skin.

As he approached it, the first barrier came into view. Along the walls, there was a sprawling series of what appeared to be runes and glyphs, carved into the rock and seeming to glow faintly with a light of their own. At the very center of the carvings was what looked like a door.

Certain it was booby trapped, and also admiring the workmanship that had gone into the carvings, Tony paused to look at them closely, holding his small lantern high.

Nothing jumped out at him, at first. The carvings made no sense to him. They fit none of the alphabets he was familiar with. Not Norse, not Aztec, nor Inca or Mayan, they defied easy reading, and it wasn't clear what he should do with them.

“Hm,” Tony reached out to brush his fingers over one of the carvings and startled when his fingers met smooth stone. “An illusion?”

His fingers met more smooth stone when he tried to use his sense of touch to find the edges of the door he'd assumed he was supposed to open.

Interesting.

With a mental shrug, Tony moved onward down the corridor. “Puzzles that don't exist, and art that's older than it looks. What next?”

Next, it turned out, was a tripwire string along the floor at his ankles that he blundered right into. Tony threw himself backwards with a surprised yelp as the floor started opening up underfoot in a concerted attempt to swallow him. It took him several heart pounding seconds to scramble back onto the solid part of the tunnel on his hands and knees, gripping his lantern tightly. 

Tony let himself lie there, sprawled out and panting for air, until he'd recovered. 

“Shit,” he swore at himself, feeling the sting of skin scraped raw on his palms and his knees and fairly sure he was bleeding. “Tony, pay attention! It's not just the puzzles on the walls you need to watch out for!”

Gingerly getting to his feet, Tony surveyed the area in front of him and groaned. The pit that had opened up when he'd hit the tripwire spanned the entire breadth of the tunnel and was wider than he could jump.

“Damn it. I don't suppose there's a way to reset that trap?” He asked aloud.

No one answered, of course.

Setting the lantern down on the floor beside him, Tony grabbed for his journal and decided to write down what he'd seen so far in the hopes that it might lead inspiration to strike. It had before.

He felt himself calm further as he made his notes and sketches, lingering over his depiction of the glyphs and runes, attempting to make sure it was accurate.

When Tony looked up from his work some ten minutes later -- or what had felt like ten minutes, anyway -- the tunnel looked untouched. There was no sign of the pit or the tripwire whatsoever.

Had that been an illusion, too? It had felt damned real. He'd felt the tripwire snag on his ankle and pull tight. Heard the rumble of the stone as it moved.

Tony's eyes narrowed. If that had been an illusion, that would explain why he hadn't spotted the tripwire until after he'd tripped it.

But to make illusion feel so real?

“If you're out there,” Tony said, hearing the irritation in his own voice, “you could at least do me the favour of not being difficult about this.”

That got him no response either. Not that he'd expected one.

Snapping his journal closed and tucking it back in his pack, Tony continued on.

That time he got a bit farther before the next trap sprung. Or, he thought it was a trap, anyway. A flicker of movement in the tunnel teased him. Always just outside the circle of light cast by his lantern, it looked and moved like Bucky did when he was half-lion. Right down to the suggestion of wings and feathers and sinuously flicking tailtip.

It invited Tony to hurry forward. To chase down what he'd seen and try to catch up to it. To find out whether it truly was the sphinx and caution him, to yell at Bucky for following him and try to keep the sphinx from setting off any further traps before he--

Or to rush blindly forward into the darkness, he realised, and stopped in his tracks.

He'd been very nearly caught out by two illusions already and had no desire to run face first into a third, if that's what this was. Both of the first two had been very convincing, and Tony had no doubt that this one would be as well. It would probably reply if he tried to talk to it.

But how could the Trials involve Bucky?

That made no sense.

Unless, Tony realised with a grimace, the puzzles and traps were being lifted right out of his head. 

Tony couldn't see the sphinx anymore, but he just knew that the sphinx was still there. Or appeared to be, at least. The suggested flicker of movement hadn't stopped. “Bucky?” He called out instead of moving another inch, “is that you?”

“Yeah, it's me,” Bucky answered, far calmer and more measured than their last interaction would have suggested he'd be. “What’cha doin’ way back there?”

On his guard, Tony refused to budge. “C’mere,” he demanded.

“What for? What's wrong?” Bucky asked, sounding puzzled.

Tony didn't answer, now convinced that whatever that was, it wasn't Bucky. The sphinx would have been more likely to chew him out some more than try to coax him further into the passage.

And, Tony remembered belatedly, he'd said he wasn't allowed to help with the Trials.

“Tony?” Bucky slunk back out of the shadows, and stopped just outside the bright circle of lantern light. “Tony, why are you mad at me?”

“I'm not mad at you,” Tony said with a shrug. “You're not here.”

Bucky huffed. “Sure I am,” he disagreed and offered Tony one clawed hand.

Tony eyed it warily. What was the correct answer here? To comfort a friend or be wary of further trickery? “Forgive me,” he said carefully, settling on a half-truth, “but those claws of yours are sharp and I'd rather not shred my fingers.”

Or his feelings, but he wasn't going to say a word about those.

Looking hurt, Bucky turned his back and left.

“You're not the person I thought you were,” he said over his shoulder, leaving Tony with a circle of light and the strong temptation to rush after Bucky and insist that he wanted nothing more than to touch and hold him.

Biting his lip to hold back the words, Tony forced his spine straight. “What kind of person did you think I am, then?”

Bucky didn't answer, but a leonine growl resounded in the darkness his eyes couldn't pierce, echoing off the stone walls around them until the rumbling sound seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. 

Warily, Tony shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet. “Bucky?”

The growl intensified, and Tony winced. It looked like he'd have to find a way past the sphinx if he wanted to continue with the Trials.

Edging forward gingerly got him a snarl, and Tony realised Bucky was fully shifted. Worse, the massive lion was crouched and ready to pounce if Tony made one wrong move. 

Taking a steadying breath and realizing that he was almost shaking with the adrenaline pouring through him, Tony gathered himself with his feet shoulder width apart and tried to make work out whether he'd be able to make it if he attempted to leap past Bucky and run.

He might be able to make the leap, he thought, but evading capture afterward...

That was unlikely and bordering on impossible. 

Even on two feet Bucky was faster and stronger than he was, and Tony wasn't in the best physical shape just now, anyway. 

Was there a way past that didn't involve force?

Bucky didn't seem inclined to allow that, but maybe...

“How'd you get in here, anyway?” Tony asked him conversationally. “You said you couldn't interfere.”

The growl stumbled before it picked up again, a trifle less angrily.

“Come on, Bucky,” he tried again. “You know damned well I don't want to hurt you. We've been through that discussion before.”

The lion grumbled something that almost sounded like it should resolve into words. 

“Don't argue,” Tony scolded him. “Not unless you're gonna shift into a form where I can understand you. That's just rude.”

With another huff, Bucky got back to his feet, no longer crouched and aggressive, but didn't budge from his position.

“Yeah, that right there, that's exactly what I just said was rude,” Tony pointed out. “Tell me what's got you so upset. I can't help fix it otherwise.”

The lion’s plumed tail lashed once, and then he turned and vanished soundlessly into the darkness ahead of Tony, leaving only the sensation of an empty room behind. 

“Bucky?” Tony tried, edging forward.

Nothing but silence answered him.

He waited what he thought was another minute, then accepted that Bucky had left the immediate area. That was another red flag, really. The Bucky Tony had gotten to know was far more likely to have stuck to him like glue than to leave like that, no matter how annoyed he was with Tony's behavior. That had been proven at least once before, during the dogfight they'd gotten into on their way here from Brazil. 

All of which led to the conclusion that it hadn't been Bucky that had been confronting him. 

What or whom it had been? That was an open question, though Tony suspected the being that had met him in the first chamber of the cave. Or rather, the tunnel system.

Settling his pack more comfortably on his back, Tony started moving forward once more. Albeit cautiously.

For the next twenty meters or so, he encountered nothing. It was enough to set him properly on edge, waiting for a shoe to fall that never did, but he forced himself onwards. And then, with a suddenness that left him more than a little bit stunned, Tony found himself on what was effectively a short pier on an underground river.

Was it another illusion? He knew he wouldn't be able to easily work that out. The chamber sounded and smelled like it contained river water, and the air felt appropriately moist. The pier was a simple spur of stone floor that jutted out into the flowing water, and the river itself flowed fast and silent.

After his many years of adventuring, Tony knew well that still waters ran deep.

Attempting to swim across would likely end in him drowning. But there was nothing around the chamber to scavenge to build a raft or a bridge, and he hadn't brought enough rope to improvise one.

Tony took the few steps over to the water’s edge and knelt to dunk his hand. The water was icy and the current strong enough to tug sharply at his hand.

When he pulled his hand back out of the water and stood, he got his next surprise. Out of the darkness, a two-masted schooner [15] ghosted up to the pier and stopped there, coming to a graceful halt despite having no sailors on her decks. 

Tony eyed it warily, not sure whether he wanted to trust himself to this mystery ship that had neither crew nor captain, but seeing no other way across the river.

After a few breaths, he gave in to the necessity though he still hesitated to physically board the ship. “Needs must.”

He could feel himself starting to tire, physically, and that was almost as worrying as the idea of getting aboard this strange sailing ship that sailed itself.

If the Trials were nearing their end, then he was fairly sure he could stick it out. If not... well. If not, he was likely to fail and that would be the end of his adventures. And, worse, he was sure that the moment he set foot aboard the ship the next trial would begin.

Based on the pattern of the Trials he'd been through so far, this was likely to be one more in a series of illusions, but his senses all claimed there was water in front of him and a ship floating in it. There was simply no other way forward unless he was willing to let the water take him, illusory or not.

Steeling himself, he stepped aboard and rode out the wobble in his knees when he made the switch from standing on solid ground to standing on a deck that dipped and swayed gently under his weight.

As he'd expected, the ship slid smoothly into motion underfoot the moment he was aboard. It smelled and sounded like a proper sailing ship, too, all tar and pitch and snapping sails and creaking wood. 

Wondering where it would take him, Tony watched everything he could, warily. If this was a test, it didn't feel like one as yet. 

Cautiously, he approached the bow of the ship, wanting to have a better view of where he was going. “Ships that sail themselves and underground rivers in a region that shouldn't have any,” he grumbled. “What's next?”

As if on cue, a flaming skull appeared before him, hovering over the still waters of the river like the spectre it had to be.

“I just had to ask,” Tony muttered, then raised his voice. “Can I help you?”

The Skull didn't answer, and to Tony it looked almost taken aback, as though he hadn't followed its script and now it wasn't sure what to do.

“Are you Part of the Trials?” Tony asked it after a silent moment.

“I am,” it told him in a dramatic booming voice. “Thou must defeat me if thou wouldst seek audience with the master of this domain.”

The whole thing felt a bit overdone to Tony, like a piece of children's theatre. All the elements of an evil being were in evidence, and emphasised almost to the point of making it a caricature.

A whiff of sulfur completed the image. Hellfire and brimstone.

“What are your terms?” Tony asked him, curious.

That got him another awkward silence. Then, “Thou’rt most direct. Very well. Who would cross the River of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see.”

Tony raised an eyebrow at the Skull; that sounded like a series of riddles with potential death by fire waiting if he failed. “What questions?”

“Firstly, I would know who thou art. Tell me of yourself.”

“That's not a question,” Tony pointed out, amused, and got the impression the Evil Being had rolled its eyes at him.

“Who art thou, Traveller?” It rephrased its demand.

"My name is Tony Stark,"he answered frankly.

He got something of a non-reaction. The being seemed to nod and simply accept that for true. It didn't even quibble over the difference between 'Tony' and 'Anthony', somewhat to his surprise. 

“Where dost thou hail from and wherefore seekest thou audience?” Came the next predictable query.

Answering that took a bit of time. His name hadn't made any waves, but the being had wanted to know where New York was, and then what injury he was trying to heal, and what a repulsor pump was, and afterwards proceeded to insist that was all part of the answer to the first question he'd asked. 

Tony hadn't tried to insist otherwise, growing less intimidated with each passing minute, and eventually the flaming skull -- which Tony was fairly certain was the same glowing being that had greeted him, albeit in “disguise” -- eventually pronounced itself satisfied with his answer. “Art thou prepared for the final question?"

"Is that the final question?" Tony riposted, daring to tease the being a little.

The skull scowled at him. "Nay. Now answer, that we may bring this to its conclusion."

"Sure, I'm ready," he replied, shrugging. "What's the final question?"

"What is the capital of Assyria?"

Tony stared at it blankly for a beat, thrown by the seeming randomness of the question, then shook his head to clear it and shoved everything else he was worrying about aside. He hadn't so much as thought about the history of that part of the world in positively ages. "That city has more than one name[16]," he answered after a beat. "I know it as Ashur."

The world dissolved into light around him, and Tony couldn't hold back the startled sound that tore free of him. When his sight cleared, he was on his back in the original foyer-like chamber he'd entered, what felt like weeks ago. Sitting up with a groan, he scrubbed his hands over his face tiredly, then gave in to gravity's demands and lay back down on the cool stone, drained.

Not sure what it meant that he was back in this chamber, but relieved he wasn't dead, Tony stared up at the ceiling and just let himself recover from whatever had just happened.

A few seconds passed in silence, and then a voice broke the silence. "You okay, Tony?"

Tony shrugged, not quite sure what to think. "Well, I'm alive?"

He didn't recognise the voice. Whoever it belonged to sounded more masculine than not, though the pitch of its voice could still fall into either range, and the phrasing it used was so far from the formality of the thees and thous he'd adjusted to for the Trials that it was almost enough to send him reeling with the suddenness of the change. He got the impression of a somewhat irritated sigh, and then his senses decided to tell him that the glowing being who'd greeted him was now crouching beside him, concerned.

"Come on," it said, "Buck won't be very happy if I let you hurt yourself, now that you've passed the Trials."

Peeling open his eyes, and not sure when he'd closed them, Tony eyed the being warily, but didn't move. "You know Bucky."

"Yeah, I know Bucky. Get up."

Tony made a face, but gave in and forced himself to sit up. He felt wrung out and drained, all his energy sapped, and he was fairly sure his limbs had been replaced with wet noodles. It took him a good few seconds to get himself upright, and he didn't bother to stifle his tired, somewhat pained groan as vertigo overtook him briefly and made his head spin.

"There. I'm up," he declared, deciding what he'd achieved was close enough.

"Fine," the being accepted that, though it sounded a bit reluctant. "You've told me what you seek, honestly. You've undergone the Trials and responded to all of them admirably. Now it's time I upheld my end of the bargain. You sought audience and won it. I can help you, for a price. The precise means by which I can do so, that has to stay secret, but I can."

Knowing what the being was saying was important, but fighting to focus well enough to parse what it was saying, Tony just stared at it for a few seconds then forced himself to pay attention. "What price?" He managed to rasp out.

As though it knew he was fighting to stay cogent, the being replied with a set of simple questions that would be easy to follow. "What is it worth to you?" It asked. "Would you give up your riches? Your memories? Your friends? Would you give up on all hope of finding love?"

That sounded like one more in the long series of Trials he'd just undergone. Tony sniffed. "I never sign a contract without reading it in detail," he shot back, not entirely sure what he was doing but convinced he needed to say this bit. "Does giving up my riches mean I can't get them back? Does giving up my memories mean I can give them to someone else in trust? Does giving up my friends mean they have to give me up? Does giving up on finding love mean giving up what I have found already?"

"You are wise beyond expectation," came the answer, and Tony huffed at the still-inscrutable nameless being.

"That doesn't tell me anything," Tony persisted. "Without knowing what I'm agreeing to, I'm not signing anything, metaphorically or not."

A sound reminiscent of a laugh came from the being in front of him. "Very well. What will you offer me in return for your healing?"

"What could I possibly offer you?" Tony countered, the words coming automatically, as though prompted by someone. Or something. "Money has no meaning for someone like you, I imagine. Nor can I offer to build you anything or find you anything material that you cannot find on your own. Tucked away here you are quite safe from accidental discovery. Would you like to leave this place and come with me? See how I make use of your gift? Would you like to take part in my adventures for as long as you like, with the choice to return here open to you at any time?"

That made the being pause, apparently surprised once more. "Your offer is generous, and made in good faith. Very well, I accept."

He seemed to be taking in all manner of magical strays, Tony reflected, and then the world went dark.

* * *

When his eyes opened again, he was lying on the hard ground in the middle of the little camp his friends had made, and they were alternately staring at the glowing figure in their midst and then down at him, worried.

"Oh good," Bucky growled at him, the first to notice that Tony was aware again, "now that you're back with us you can explain what is going on here."

"It's like I told ya," the glowing figure replied.

Bucky rolled his eyes at it. "I've told ya before, Steve, ya can't just make up some kind of nonsensical contract and expect it to work out! That's how ya got your dumb ass stuck down here in the middle of nowhere in the first place!"

Tony couldn't help himself. The absurdity of that statement made him chuckle. A powerful being like that? And its name was Steve? What the hell?

Pushing himself into a sitting position once more and pleased to note that not only he was barely sore at all, he felt like a new man, Tony shook his head. It was strange not to feel... weighed down. He felt oddly light and he could breathe easily for the first time in years. His hand flew up to touch his chest and, wonder of wonders, he couldn't feel the cover plate of the repulsor pump through the fabric of his shirt.

A shock of adrenaline flooded through him, followed by a fierce kind of elation. It had worked. It had _worked_.

Drawing a slightly deeper breath, Tony interjected, "I don't know what you've heard about what happened, but it's probably true. I tendered an invitation, and Steve accepted." He paused and eyed Steve a bit critically. "It would make things easier for all of us if you weren't glowing all the time, though. That tends to draw a lot of attention."

"Huh? Oh, right. It's been a long time since I actually spent time among humans." Steve did... something, and then the glowing figure resolved into a tall blond man with a downright Greek shoulder to hip ratio and what looked like muscles to spare. He wasn't wearing much, either, as though intent on showing off his physique.

Well then.

It was probably for the best Tony hadn't seen the guy looking like this when he'd encountered him after the Trials. That would have been mighty distracting.

"So we've gathered that you pulled it off well enough to get through those Trials," Jarvis jumped in, grabbing Tony's attention, "did you get what you wanted out of it?"

"You could say that," Tony agreed. "What's the situation out here? How long was I in there?"

Bucky scowled. "It's been almost two weeks to the day since you left us," he answered, giving Steve a look that should have scorched him.

Steve shrugged it off. "I lent him some of my energy while he was going through the Trials. It was fine."

"Oh? That's why he looked pale as a corpse when you brought him out?" Bucky challenged Steve, a deep growl in his voice.

Tony shook his head and climbed carefully to his feet, pleased when he only wavered a little. "Stop fighting about that and let's go have some diner aboard the airship," he suggested pointedly, wondering if this was a taste of what it was like to have to care for squabbling children. "I won't have you starting off our first trip together with an argument."

With a very put out huff, Bucky gave in. Jarvis made an amused sound, and nodded. "Dinner is probably a good idea," he agreed. "It's high time we got you fed and poured you into your bed. I don't care how good you feel right now."

"No doubt tomorrow Pepper will quiz me for hours," Tony agreed. "I'll need all the energy I can scrape up for that."

The chuckle that pulled out of Jarvis was oddly satisfying. "Right."

The dinner he'd requested went by in something of a haze; Tony tasted none of it.

It didn't take long for him to eat his fill, though, ravenous as he was.

The moment he was through, Bucky was firmly hauling him out of his seat and steering him down the hallway away from the galley and toward his room. Tony's every attempt to get loose was met with a possessive grumble and a glare. Somehow, and Tony wasn't entirely sure how -- or why, for that matter -- Bucky wound up sleeping next to him. Well, more accurately, practically on top of him, for all the world like a cat with separation anxiety.

It was an unexpected move, and underscored the weird tension that had been in the air since Steve had apparently brought him back to their camp. Not sure what to think about it, Tony decided to leave that question for the morning. It had been a long damned day and he was tired. Far too tired and well fed to stay awake just to try to puzzle out what the hell was happening, right then. It would probably be most efficient to simply ask Bucky what was going on anyway, and save himself the trouble of working it out.

The next morning, he woke up warm and secure in Bucky's arms and surprised himself a little with how much he liked that. Bucky woke soon after and tried to hastily extricate himself.

Tried. Tony wasn't about to let him slip away. "I think maybe we have something to talk about," he said quietly and wound his arms around Bucky's waist.

"Perhaps we do," Bucky agreed, then gently but insistently peeled Tony away from him and got up. "Breakfast comes first, I think. But once we've eaten, we can have that talk. You..." Bucky swallowed back something that looked almost painful, then went on. "I never expected things to happen like this, but now that they have I guess we'll have to find a solution together."

That wasn't overly clear, but Tony was used to Bucky's cryptic utterances, now. That sounded like the sphinx was as attracted to him as he was to Bucky. Hope flaring somewhere in his chest and feeling like it might light him up, Tony nodded. "Sure, together."

They might still be deep in the wilderness and about as far from home as they could get, if you counted the miles, but as far as Tony was concerned it was a good day.

* * *

[1] For more information, including pictures of the statue, follow the Wikipedia link to read about the [Sphinx of Naxos](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx_of_Naxos). Click here to return to text.

[2] This is based on the [definition of the word ‘trespass’](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=definition+of+trespass). Click here to return to text.

[3] More information about the way things went down in our timeline can be found [here on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Pizarro#Pizarro's_death). The short version is that Pizarro was attacked in his palace and killed. Click here to return to text.

[4] For the purposes of this fic the airship is being moored at [Macapá International Airport](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macap%C3%A1_International_Airport). Click here to return to text.

[5] Click the [link](https://goo.gl/maps/hWDitD2yYsL2) to go to Google Maps and have a look at the region. Click here to return to text.

[6] I’m using the [Hindenburg-class airship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindenburg-class_airship) as a reference point, here. The Hindenburg could fly faster than this, but Tony’s airship is smaller and carries less powerful engines. Click here to return to text.

[7] The big ole balloon with the gas inside it that allows the airship to fly is called the envelope. More information can be found at the [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship#Construction), for those interested. Click here to return to text.

[8] This one’s a youtube link to a period training film for pilots! I thought this was actually really cool, and very interesting to watch. Everything’s very clearly explained. [Happy watching.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIYVwqHM488). Click here to return to text.

[9] Tracers work by containing a compound — usually a metal salt like magnesium oxide — that burns brightly on ignition, so that it’s highly visible, even during the day. These tend to be compounds similar to those in fireworks, in many cases, and have been in use for aerial and ground combat since the first World War. More information at the [Wikipedia link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition), as usual. Click here to return to text.

[10] The airport Tony’s referring to here is this one: [Wikipedia link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teniente_General_Benjam%C3%ADn_Matienzo_International_Airport). Not too much to be said here in the summary, since I couldn’t find all that much info about it. Click here to return to text.

[11] The historic quarter of Santiago contains a number of old churches and other interesting examples of architecture from various centuries. More info [here](http://www.allsantiago.com/the-historic-quarter/). Click here to return to text.

[12] The two volcanoes that Tony’s referring to, [Kilauea](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%ABlauea) and Maipo, are both the kind of volcanoes that have relatively slow magma eruptions rather than the violent explosive ones that you tend to hear about coming out of Indonesia or elsewhere along the Ring of Fire in the Pacific. Click here to return to text.

[13] This link is fairly self explanatory, so I won’t go into tooooo much detail. It’s basically a [map of the Chilean climate zones](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Chile#/media/File%3AChile_K%C3%B6ppen.png) organised by the amount of rain they get and their average yearly temperatures. Click here to return to text.

[14] This is mroe of a sidenote, but I thought the reading was interesting. Here’s a [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_fate_deities) to the Wikipedia article about time and fate deities. There’s a much bigger selection than I first expected, and they’re surprisingly similar to one another, in many cases. Click here to return to text.

[15] So. Sailing ships. First of all, there are about a bajillion different kinds, with subtle differences between them. One thing that all of them share is that they all have sails and hulls. They vary in the number of sails and masts they carry, their size (length, width, tonnage, and so on), whether they have oars, motors, where they were built, what purpose they serve, and on and on. It’s actually a very complex field, and I’m not about to try to even begin to scratch the surface, here. I’ll stick to my customary [Wikipedia link](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_ship) to the overview that’s already been written.

The specific kind of sailing ship that appears in this film, [ the Schooner](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schooner), also has a bunch of different subtypes that you can pick from, so to speak. First used by the Dutch in the 16th Century or so, they were further developed in North America starting in the early 18th Century, and were used for everything from fishing to passenger transport and commerce… as well as less legal activities. Click here to return to text.

[16] The capital city of [Assyria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria) is [Assur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assur). Yes, this is a Monty Python reference. No, I'm not sorry. Click here to return to text.


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